Cultural Criticism | Tom Lordan

FEATURED WRITING

Artist Residency Roundup: Europe

Published in the Visual Artist’s Newsheet July 2026 TOM LORDAN PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF FUNDED ARTIST RESIDENCIES IN EUROPE. FINLAND: Saari Residence, Mynämäki Situated in Mynämäki, Southwest Finland, the Saari Residence is a multidisciplinary residency programme for international artists, curators,…
The Truth of the Image: La Belle Noiseuse at 35

Published by Little White Lies June 2026 Jacques Rivette occupies a distinctive place within the French New Wave. His films are characterised by the patience afforded to their duration, not to mention their philosophical ambition. In a late interview with Hélène Frappat,…
Phillip Allen’s Deep Waiting | Kerlin Gallery

Published in Paper Visual Art May 2026 The English painter Phillip Allen is known for combining pictorial imagery with densely worked, heavily textured surfaces. His signature device – legible across all twelve of the paintings included in his recent exhibition…
Ireland Paid Its Artists – Did It Work?

Published by Frieze March 2026 Exhausted by forced closures, restrictions on movement and ever-shrinking budgets, Irish cultural institutions teetered on the verge of collapse during the COVID-19 crisis. Countless exhibitions were cancelled, visual art sales all but disappeared and many…

RECENT WRITING

Theatre Review: Saving For A Helicopter at the New Theatre

Published in The Irish Times September 2026 Illness, both chronic and mortal, has emerged as a recurring theme…
Theatre Review: Chronically Hopefully at Smock Alley Theatre

Published in the Irish Times September 2026 Chronically Hopeful is an interdisciplinary production from Musici Ireland exploring the…
Interview: Eamon Colman

Published by the Visual Artist’s Newsheet September 2026 Curated by Rain TOM LORDAN INTERVIEWS EAMON COLMAN ABOUT HIS…
Book Review: Proust by Samuel Beckett

Published in the Irish Times August 2026 Eimear McBride recounts in her preface that, at the time he…
Artist Residency Roundup: Europe

Published in the Visual Artist’s Newsheet July 2026 TOM LORDAN PROVIDES AN OVERVIEW OF FUNDED ARTIST RESIDENCIES IN…
The Truth of the Image: La Belle Noiseuse at 35

Published by Little White Lies June 2026 Jacques Rivette occupies a distinctive place within the French New Wave. His…
Phillip Allen’s Deep Waiting | Kerlin Gallery

Published in Paper Visual Art May 2026 The English painter Phillip Allen is known for combining pictorial imagery…
Ireland Paid Its Artists – Did It Work?

Published by Frieze March 2026 Exhausted by forced closures, restrictions on movement and ever-shrinking budgets, Irish cultural institutions…
Michael Corrigan’s Margins | SO Fine Art Gallery

Published in the Visual Artists’ News Sheet March 2026 Michael Corrigan is a Dublin-based photographer and former Chair…
Sean Scully’s Tapestry | Kerlin Gallery

Published in The Irish Times December 2025 Sean Scully, who is among the most acclaimed Irish painters working…
Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh’s Vague Symptom Clinic | Project Arts Centre

Published by The Irish Times December 2025 The artist Ciarán Ó Dochartaigh grew up in Derry in the…
Alan Butler’s Assets | Green On Red Gallery

Published by The Irish Times November 2025 Alan Butler doesn’t just create artworks; he creates imaginaries: systems of representation…
Corban Walker’s RESIST | Solomon Fine Art

Published by The Irish Times October 2025 Corban Walker has had a long, accomplished career: a member of Aosdána and…
Theatre Review: In Her Father’s Voice at O’Reilly Theatre

Published by The Irish Times October 2025 The actor turned playwright Shane O’Reilly is one of a number of hearing…
Ella Bertilsson’s Slippery Like Mango Juice | Horse Gallery

Published by The Irish Times September 2025 Ella Bertilsson has had a busy few months. First she collaborated…
Theatre Review: Amsterdam at Glass Mask Theatre

Published by The Irish Times September 2025 Amsterdam is a will-they-won’t-they comedy drama written and performed by the…
Helen Blake’s Let the Rules Be Soft | Molesworth Gallery

Published by The Irish Times September 2025 “My freedom will be so much the greater and more meaningful…
True Colour | Kevin Kavanagh

Published by The Irish Times September 2025 True Colour is an impressive collection of contemporary abstract painting, ranging…
Essay: Karen Ebbs’ An Outer Reflection Of An Inner Reality at dlr Lexicon

Published by Karen Ebbs & Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council 2025 PORTALS OF COLOUR: ON THE IMMERSIVE PRACTICE…
Grá | Uilinn: West Cork Arts Centre

Published by The Irish Times While Crawford Art Gallery, in Cork, is closed for redevelopment – it’s expected to…
Karl Weschke Retrospective | Hillsboro Fine Art Gallery

Published by The Irish Times July 2025 Karl Weschke was a German-British painter, born in 1925, who became…
Sam Gilliam’s Sewing Fields | IMMA

Published by The Irish Times July 2025 First, a confession: before I visited this exhibition I had never…
Dreamtime Ireland | VISUAL Carlow

Published by The Irish Times June 2025 I first encountered Sean Lynch around this time last year, at the Banana…
Sarah Long’s Aisling Is A Dream | SO Fine Art

Published by The Irish Times June 2025 I first encountered the work of Sarah Long, whose aesthetic is…
Lee Kit’s Porn | Mother’s Tankstation

Published by The Irish Times June 2025 I always enjoy a visit to Mother’s Tankstation, not least because…
Dance Review: Queen of the Meadows at Project Arts Centre

Published by The Irish Times May 2025 Robyn Byrne is an award-winning dance artist based in the midlands.…
Labour of Love | The Glucksman

Published by The Irish Times May 2025 The concept of care has been brought into focus in contemporary art over…
Theatre Review: From a Low and Quiet Sea at Gaiety Theatre

Published by The Irish Times April 2025 For a novelist, Donal Ryan‘s name recognition is as good as it…
Interview: Martin Parr

Published by The Irish Times April 2025 Martin Parr is practically a household name in Britain. Over the…
Gerard Byrne’s The Struggle with the Angel | Kerlin Gallery

Published by The Irish Times March 2025 Gerard Byrne, who was born in Dublin in 1969, and works…
All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun | Dublin Castle

Published by The Irish Times March 2025 In At Swim-Two-Birds, his avant-garde masterpiece, Flann O’Brien unspools a mythic, absurdist narrative…
Ursula Burke’s Siren | Butler Gallery

Published by The Irish Times February 2025 For the better part of two decades Ursula Burke has brought…
Oscar Fouz Lopez’s Tenets of Growing | Molesworth

Published by The Irish Times February 2025 When you think of figurative painters, portraiture often comes to mind.…
Fergus Feehily’s Fortune House | TBGS

Published by The Irish Times January 2025 The title of Fergus Feehily’s exhibition conveys a specific set of…
Theatre Review: Madeira at Bewley’s Cafe Theatre

Published by The Irish Times January 2025 Madeira: Secrets of Sisters, by Michael J Harnett, is a small,…
Periodical Review 14 | Pallas Projects

Published by The Irish Times January 2025 Beginning in 2011, the Periodical Review series was designed to bring…
Theatre Review: The Life & Times of Paddy Armstrong at Viking Theatre

Published by The Irish Times January 2025 Along with Paul Hill, Gerry Conlon and Carole Richardson, Paddy Armstrong was one…
Nil Yalter’s Solo | Green On Red Gallery

Published by The Irish Times December 2024 Nil Yalter, who was awarded a prestigious Golden Lion for Lifetime…
Winter Exhibition 2024 | Lavit Gallery

Published in The Irish Times November 2024 The Lavit’s Winter Exhibition is an annual event that celebrates artists…
Mandy O’Neill’s Best Laid Plans | Irish Architectural Archive

Published by The Irish Times November 2024 Best Laid Plans, the fruit of Mandy O’Neill’s practice-based PhD at…
Cian McLoughlin’s Zero Is An Even Number | Molesworth Gallery

Published by The Molesworth Gallery 2024 The relationship between perception and the perceptible lies at the core of…
Orla Whelan’s Coloured into Shape | Hillsboro Fine Art

Published by The Irish Times October 2024 Orla Whelan’s geometric abstractions may seem straightforward and direct on first…
Theatre Review: 0800 Cupid at Project Art Centre

Published by The Irish Times September 2024 Thisispopbaby, created by the theatre- and festival-maker Jennifer Jennings and the playwright Phillip McMahon in…
Theatre Review: Shades Through A Shade at Samuel Beckett Theatre

Published by The Irish Times September 2024 Gare St Lazare Ireland is the brainchild of the theatrical power…
Shane Lynam’s Pebbledash Wonderland | Photo Museum Ireland

Published by The Irish Times September 2024 Bare cement walls, empty street corners, signless alleys, handrails, dated public…
Dance Review: Dancehall Blues at CoisCéim Dance Theatre

Published by The Irish Times September 2024 Since CoisCéim was founded, in the 1990s, by the choreographer David…
Longest Way Round, Shortest Way Home | TBGS @ Dublin Port

Published in Frieze July 2024 According to one well-worn anecdote, the writer James Joyce was approached in Zurich…
Anna Boghiguian’s Period of Change | Douglas Hyde Gallery

Published by The Irish Times July 2024 Born in Cairo in 1946, Anna Boghiguian is a contemporary artist…
Mark Francis’s Acoustic Oceans | Kerlin Gallery

Published by The Irish Times July 2024 Born in 1962 in Newtownards, Co Down, Mark Francis is a well established painter…
The Outlaws Are Back | Laneway Gallery

Published by The Irish Times July 2024 According to the artist Serge Le Belge, the name for the…
Theatre Review: 2:22 A Ghost Story at the Olympia

Published by The Irish Times June 2024 It may surprise you to learn that London’s West End stretches…
Essay: Sinn Fein and Local Elections 2024

Published by The Irish Times June 2024 From the moment that the results from the recent local election started to…
Caoimhín Gaffney’s All at Once Collapsing Together | Butler Gallery

Published by The Irish Times June 2024 I’ve been a keen admirer of Caoimhín Gaffney ever since I…
Sean Lynch and Laura Ní Fhlaibhín’s Banana Accelerationism | The Complex

Published by Paper Visual Art May 2024 The objects, sculptures, and moving-image works that make up Banana Accelerationism, Sean…
The List and the Line | Casino Marino

Published by The Irish Times May 2024 If you haven’t visited Casino Marino, in north Dublin, there has perhaps…
Paul Nugent’s Figures in Yellow Ochre Light and Other Paintings | Kevin Kavanagh

Published by The Irish Times April 2024 In the documentation of geological hazards, the best known incidents of…
Emily Waszak’s The Land and Others, Including the Dead | Pallas Projects/Studios

Published by The Irish Times April 2024 Last December, while walking around the RDS Visual Art Awards exhibition at Imma,…
Annual Members Exhibition 2024 | Lavit Gallery

Published by The Irish Times March 2024 The Lavit Gallery has its origins in Cork Arts Society, which…
Lovers | Green on Red Gallery

Published by The Irish Times February 2024 According to Jerome O’Driscoll, the inspiration for this exhibition was Lover…
Colin Martin’s Empathy Lab | Highlanes Gallery

Published by Highlanes Gallery 2024 REDEEMING OUR CATASTROPHES: EMPATHY LAB AND THE KANTIAN SUBLIME At the point of…
Anne Ryan’s Tugann an Torann | TBGS

Published by The Irish Times January 2024 Anne Ryan grew up in the late 1960s and 1970s in…
Guggi’s Them | Kerlin Gallery

Published by The Irish Times January 2024 Memory holds an endless fascination. The way it works and doesn’t…
RDS Visual Art Awards 2023 | IMMA

Published by The Irish Times December 2023 Each year the RDS brings together a panel of judges to…
Theatre Review: No Woman Is An Island at Project Arts Centre

Published by The Irish Times October 2023 Róisín Stack is a theatre and performance artist, based in the west…
Theatre Review: Ironbound at the Abbey Theatre

Published by The Irish Times October 2023 The playwright Martyna Majok’s biography is, in a sense, a classic…
The Politics of Place | Photo Museum Ireland

Published in Totally Dublin August 2022 In the decades on either side of the fin de siécle, it was…
Annual Degree Show 2022 | NCAD

Published in Totally Dublin July 2022 The opening of NCAD’s annual degree show is always a notable event…
Book Review: Left Without a Handkerchief by Robert O’Byrne

Published by The Irish Times July 2022 On April 11th, 1923, the government executed six members of the…
Sub/Plot | SO Fine Art Gallery

Published by Totally Dublin May 2022 At the exhibition’s opening on a rainy Saturday in Powerscourt, it’s clear…
Interview: Kerry Guinan and The Red Thread

Published by Totally Dublin May 2022 Kerry Guinan is a conceptual artist from Donabate who explores the intricate relationships…
Tableaux Vivants | Hugh Lane Gallery

Published by Totally Dublin March 2022 Tableaux Vivants is a single-room exhibition in the Hugh Lane gallery, curated by the…
The Map | Rua Red

Published in Totally Dublin January 2022 The first thing that strikes you as you walk into the exhibition…
From Here to There | Douglas Hyde Gallery

Published in Totally Dublin December 2021 From Here to There involves three artists – David Lunney, Áine McBride, and Katie Watchorn – displaying…
Long Interview: Aaron Benanav and Overcapacity

Published by 3:AM Magazine October 2021 Aaron Benanav writes frequently for the New Left Review. A member of thecommunist…
David Booth’s Polybond | Hang Tough Contemporary

Published by Totally Dublin October 2021 Portraiture has always had a special appeal to the audiences who love…
Narrow Gate, Chapter 1: Queer Embodiment | IMMA

Published by Totally Dublin September 2021 IMMA is celebrating its 30th birthday with an exhibition cycle called ‘The Narrow Gate of…
The Mind’s Eye | PhotoIreland Festival

Published by Totally Dublin July 2021 Julia Gelezova is the primary curator of this year’s PhotoIreland Festival, an event…
Agitation Nation | TBGS

Published by Totally Dublin June 2021 As the restrictions gradually loosen and something like normality reasserts itself in…
Essay: Automation and the Future of Work

Published by The Dublin Review of Books January 2021 Aaron Benanav has the all the hallmarks of a…