Madrid come back.

To help artists find “a path to the deviations within themselves,” Nayland Blake has a few (or 100) thoughts. Assignments include installing shelves on the street and making a sculpture that “produces the ­pleasure of being ignored.”

I wrote about Alan Butler's newest exhibition ASSETS at the Green On Red Gallery. A contemporary alchemist, Butler creates technological imaginaries, bringing unseen global civilisational forces alive. Spellbinding. @alanbutler.info #assets @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Moments in Autumn

This year’s Dublin Gallery Weekend is in full swing with over forty galleries, including the RHA, taking part across the city. See dublingalleryweekend.ie for more. On view for DGW here at the RHA 👀

Japanese poster for Ingmar Bergman's THE RITE (1969)

My latest review for @irishtimes.com is online. This week's focus is Corban Walker's #RESIST at @solomonfineart.bsky.social. The acclaimed, Cork-based artist continues to exercise his long-standing preoccupation with structure, scale, utility and proportion. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Today we commemorate the passing of Bernard Stiegler, one of the most original voices in contemporary philosophy of technology. 1/

Sunrise in the Pyrenees

Latest review for @irishtimes.com was on Ella Bertilsson's Slippery Like Mango Juice at the #Horse gallery on Bethesda Place, around the corner from the #HughLane. Violence simmered below the playful surface, along with ruminations on dislocation, alienation. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Saw PTA's new film One Battle After Another yesterday. Definitely enjoyed it, though I'd like to see it again - hard to wrap my head around it. Some intriguing resonances with Aster's satire Eddington. An unusual narrative form: it wasn't a journey, it wasn't episodic...

"If one wishes to label me 'analytic', I will accept it only with the clarification that mine is a special form." Lorenz Puntel in 2022. #philsky #structureandbeing youtu.be/YyuTwa1XtJA?...

Latest @irishtimes.com review is centred on the @helengblake.bsky.social beautiful exhibition Let The Rules Be Soft. I discuss Blake's process of stratification and structured absences, the human and the inhuman, and her evocation of the transcendental. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

The opening talk of this year’s Boole Lectures in Philosophy will be delivered by Prof. Roberta Sala (University Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy) Title: Unreasonable Agents in the Digital Era Venue and time: CACSSS Seminar Room | Wednesday, September 17th, 1600-1800 Everybody is welcome!

I contributed a catalogue essay to Karen Ebb's exhibition An Outer Reflection Of An Inner Reality, which opened in Dun Laoghaire's #Municipal Gallery last night. I referenced Hilma af Klint, Goethe, and Bridget Riley as useful touchstones for understanding the artist's work. karenebbs.com

I visited the opening of @helengblake.bsky.social 's phenomenal Let The Rules Be Soft at the #Molesworth Gallery during the week. Exquisite, visually inventive, phenomenologically rich abstract painting. Really looking forward to writing my review - so much to grapple with! #helenblake

For my latest review in @irishtimes.com, I covered the Kevin Kavanagh gallery's #TrueColour exhibition. Including an early Evie Hone, this is an impressive collection of contemporary abstract painting, ranging across several distinct styles & visual genres. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Kant! Kant!! KANT!!! Those who love Kant are going to love our latest issue, which is chock full of Königsberg's most famous son. academic.oup.com/bjaesthetics... #philsky

I really enjoyed this short article by Theo Belci in #ArtForum. Fascinating insight into Dean Kissick's public 'Seaport Talks' on contemporary art in 2023-24, via a discussion of this subsequent essay collection. www.artforum.com/columns/seap...

I'm obviously late to the party but Jesus this is a great read #annakornbluh #immediacy

Review of Uilinn's #Grá exhibition, in Skibbereen, West Cork. Online now for @irishtimes.com www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

April themes.

I reviewed From A Low And Quiet Sea, a theatrical adaptation of Donal Ryan's novel, for @theirishtimestoday.bsky.social. Some great performances, though I felt the monologues became a little repetitive. www.irishtimes.com/culture/stag...

RP2.18: New issue out now! Sita Balani on culture wars Verónica Gago on the 'fascistisation of social reproduction' Sophie Lewis on 'fag hags' Bill Cashmore on the closure of CRMEP Dossier on the life and work of Marina Vishmidt radicalphilosophy.com

Martin Parr, at random, has so many absolute belters.

I interviewed renowned #photographer Martin Parr for the @irishtimes.com this bank holiday weekend, in run up to the Dublin Street Photography Festival. A giant in British & Irish circles, especially famous for his documentary observations of leisure and class. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Recently reviewed Gerard Byrne's The Struggle With The Angel exhibition at #Kerlin Gallery for @irishtimes.com . Meticulous, cerebral photographs that hint at humanity’s precarious condition. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Translations of two “schemata” Adorno & Horkheimer wrote for their ‘Dialectics’ book in April 1942–(I) Re: domination of nature & society; (II) Re: “Geist” b/w myth & enlightenment. To my knowledge, never before published or translated. (Link below)

Werner Herzog

Gary Stevenson is saying a lot of very sensible, simple things about wealth tax. www.youtube.com/watch?v=0quh...

Great piece by Peter Ryan, an American economic historian studying in Dublin. Acutely aware of our over-reliance on FDI & corp tax, he outlines 3 proposals to strengthen Ireland's economy in the coming decades. Not sure about the 3rd, but 1st and 2nd make great sense. substack.com/@ryanresearc...

For my latest piece in the @irishtimes.com, I wrote about the group exhibition All Flowers Bend In Time Towards The Sun in Dublin Castle. Intriguing and dynamic show, curated by @paulhallahan.bsky.social and @leewelch.bsky.social. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

March medley.

Saw some beautiful work at Dublin Castle last week. 'All Flowers Bend In Time Toward The Sun' is a group exhibition organised by artist-curators Lee Welch and Paul Hallahan, including ppl like Samir Mahmood, Eva Rothschild, and William McKeown. @paulhallahan.bsky.social

While many artists have been drawn to bees as metaphors for some aspect of human society, what Wolfgang Buttress does is ‘push humans aside and focus on the ingenuity of bees in their own right’ – Anna McGee on an exhibition of his work at the World Museum in Liverpool

My most recent exhibition review for @irishtimes.com centred on Ursula Burke's #Siren show, at the Butler Gallery. Burke's work, which reappropriates classical styles from #antiquity, is as ingenious as it is ambitious. Terrific. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Ursula Burke's newest exhibition is called Sirens, currently at the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. Highly recommend!

Dublin, a heavy atmosphere.

My latest review for @irishtimes.com looks at Oscar Fouz #Lopez's exhibition 'Tenets of Growing' at the #Molesworth Gallery in Dublin. Lopez's watercolours are tranquil tableaux that dramatise the synergies between plantlife, humans and animals. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

"Art judgments of ‘the interesting’... may be seen as the constitutive ground of modern art judgements, within which those of contemporary art comprise a distinctive type.” - Peter Osborne, Art of the Interesting, New Left Review 2024

Art Monthly, Issue 483, February 2025 • Hardeep Pandhal interviewed by Jamie Sutcliffe • Paul Pfeiffer interviewed by Adam Heardman • The Letter of the Law – Chris Townsend • Rave and Resist – Ben Burbridge • Stanley Schtinter – Profile by Morgan Quaintance + news, views, reviews and more…

In my latest review for @irishtimes.com, I am discussing the Fergus #Feehily exhibition Fortune House at #TempleBar Gallery + Studios. The Dublin-born artist produces narrative-rich, subtle, minimalist works of art, often accompanied by his own writing. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

RIP my love, rest in great power 💔 #davidlynch

Fergus Feehily 'Fortune House' at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.

My latest review for @irishtimes.com looks at the excellent #Pallas Projects exhibition, #PeriodicalReview. An annual event, involving external curators and #PVA Journal. The show's purpose is to give an overview of Irish #contemporary art in the past 12 months. www.irishtimes.com/culture/art/...

Saw the amazing #PADDY: The Life and Times of Paddy Armstrong last night. A play about Armstrong, one of the #GuildfordFour. Incredible performance by Don Wycherley, who co-wrote with Marie-Ellen Tynan and Niamh Gleeson. Currently in the Viking Theatre #Clontarf www.irishtimes.com/culture/stag...

Newest year.

I wrote about the recent boom in interest in the previously completely unknown Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint. What's behind her rise? (Spoiler: marketability) www.frieze.com/article/art-...

Claude Romano's #phenomenology is profoundly arresting. Currently reading Event and World (1998). If change is traditionally understood in terms of the things that undergo this process, are we not compelled to consider "pure change," or what #Bergson called "change without anything that changes".