Isabel Nolan has an expansive practice that incorporates sculptures, paintings, textile works, photographs, writing and works on paper. Her subject matter is similarly comprehensive, taking in cosmological phenomena, religious reliquaries, Greco-Roman sculptures and literary/historical figures, examining the behaviour of humans and animals alike. These diverse artistic investigations are driven by intensive research, but the end result is always deeply personal and subjective. Exploring the “intimacy of materiality”, Nolan’s work ranges from the architectural – steel sculptures that frame or obstruct our path – to small handmade objects in clay, hand-tufted wool rugs illuminated with striking cosmic imagery, to drawings and paintings using humble gouache or colouring pencils. In concert, they feel equally enchanted by and afraid of the world around us, expressing humanity’s fear of mortality and deep need for connection as well as its startling achievements in art and thought. Driven by “the calamity, the weirdness, horror, brevity and wonder of existing alongside billions of other preoccupied humans”, her works give generous form to fundamental questions about the ways the chaos of the world is made beautiful or given meaning through human activity.
In 2026, Nolan will represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale, with Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art as the curator and Cian O’Brien as producer. In 2025, Nolan will participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennial, Bedrock, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay (7 June – 14 September).
Isabel Nolan lives and works in Dublin.
Deep Time Day, 2024
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 12 mm pile
300 x 314 cm / 118.1 x 123.6 in
Isabel Nolan
Deep Time Day, 2024
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 12 mm pile
300 x 314 cm / 118.1 x 123.6 in
Isabel Nolan
Bench (for a forest of columns), 2024
mild steel, paint, cardboard, thread, wool
206 x 40.5 x 45 cm / 81.1 x 15.9 x 17.7 in
Isabel Nolan
Revelation, 2024
watercolour on paper
42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in paper size
47.7 x 65 x 3.7 cm / 18.8 x 25.6 x 1.5 in framed size
Isabel Nolan
Apeiron, 2024
watercolour on paper
42 x 59.4 cm / 16.5 x 23.4 in paper size
47.7 x 65 x 3.7 cm / 18.8 x 25.6 x 1.5 in framed size
Isabel Nolan
Eurydice (dead again...) and Orpheus, 2022
water-based oil on canvas
70 x 60 cm / 27.6 x 23.6 in
Isabel Nolan
The wolf who made a city tremble c.1216 (After Sassetta), 2023
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 12 mm pile
300 x 200 cm / 118.1 x 78.7 in
Isabel Nolan
Dead talk (archaeologists), 2022
water-based oil on canvas
170 x 140 cm / 66.9 x 55.1 in
Isabel Nolan
When the sky above will not be named, 2021
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 12 mm pile
292 x 538.5 cm / 115 x 212 in
collection of Arts Council of Ireland
Isabel Nolan
Miracle of Fire, 2021
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15mm pile
300 x 224 cm / 118.1 x 88.2 in
collection of The National Gallery of Ireland
Isabel Nolan
Section, 2018
stainless steel and enamel paint, edition of 2
321 x 321 x 1.5 cm / 126.4 x 126.4 x .6 in
Isabel Nolan
Löwenmensch - spanning earth and sky for forty thousand years, 2018
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15mm pile
320 x 120 cm / 126 x 47.2 in
Isabel Nolan
Partial eclipse, 2017
mild steel, paint, fabric and dye
diameter 145 x 72.5 cm / 57.1 x 28.5 in
Isabel Nolan
The Light Poured Out Of You, 2016
mild steel, paint, fabric and dye
134 x 3 cm / 52.8 x 1.2 in diameter of largest ring
Isabel Nolan
Fresh disorder diminishing energy, 2015
cotton and powder-coated mild steel flag pole
285 x 232 x 120 cm / 112.2 x 91.3 x 47.2 in
Isabel Nolan
The Barely Perceptible Vibration of Everything, 2017
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15mm pile
256 x 1945 cm / 100.8 x 765.7 in
Collection of TATE Gallery, London
Isabel Nolan
An answer about visible light, 2014
mild steel, wire, mesh, plaster bandage, jesmonite and paint
57 x 64 x 50 cm / 22.4 x 25.2 x 19.7 in
Isabel Nolan
The weakening eye of day, 2014
mild steel, wadding, wood, thread
227 x 218 x 377 cm / 89.4 x 85.8 x 148.4 in
Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Isabel Nolan
Under a bounded sky and a solitary sun: an illuminated rug arranged to accommodate a medieval mind, 2013
hand-tufted 100% New Zealand Wool, 15mm Pile
700 x 200 x 3 cm / 275.6 x 78.7 x 1.2 in
Collection of Salama bint Hamdan Al Nahyan Foundation, Abu Dhabi
A hole into the future, Musée d’art moderne de Saint Etienne, France, 2012
Isabel Nolan has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence; Void Gallery, Derry; Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Mercer Union, Toronto; London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, London; Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Solstice Arts Centre, Navan; Kunstverein Graz, Austria; Kunstverein Langenhagen, Germany and Musée d’art moderne de Saint Etienne, France. Her work has also been exhibited at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Salzburger Kunstverein; Centre of Contemporary Art, Geneva; Artspace, Sydney; Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh; Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh; Daejeon Museum of Art, South Korea; Beijing Art Museum of the Imperial City, Beijing.
Venice Biennale, 2005
In 2024, Nolan participated in Material Flux, a two-person exhibition with Aleana Egan at Highlanes, Drogheda. In 2025, Nolan will participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennial, Bedrock, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay (7 June – 14 September). In 2026, Nolan will represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Biennale, with Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art as the curator and Cian O'Brien Arts, COBA as producer.
Nolan has participated in international group exhibitions and biennales including the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2005); Lofoten International Arts Festival (LIAF); Mediations Biennale, Poznan; Yugoslav Biennale of Young Artists, Vršac, Serbia; Glasgow International and EVA International Limerick.
Isabel Nolan
Material Flux, two-person exhibition with Aleana Egan, 2024
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland
Isabel Nolan
499 seconds, 2023
Château La Coste, Aix-en-Provence, France
Isabel Nolan
Calling on Gravity, 2017
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Isabel Nolan
EVA International, 2018
Limerick, Ireland
Isabel Nolan
Curling up with reality, 2017
Grazer Kunstverein, Graz
Isabel Nolan
Another View from Nowhen, 2017
London Mithraeum Bloomberg SPACE, London
Isabel Nolan
Lofoten International Arts Festival (LIAF), 2015
Svolvær, Norway
Isabel Nolan
The weakened eye of day, 2014-2016
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG), Vancouver
Mercer Union, Toronto
Alena Egan & Isabel Nolan
Material Flux
Highlanes Gallery
29 June – 10 August
Video: Ros Kavanagh
The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Catherine Martin T.D. has announced the selection of artist, Isabel Nolan, with Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art as the curator, to represent Ireland at the 61st Venice Art Biennale in 2026.
Isabel Nolan has been invited to participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennale, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay.
Aleana Egan and Isabel Nolan present a two-person exhibition that leans into the special character of Highlanes Gallery.
Isabel Nolan and William McKeown both have artworks on display as part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art's major curated exhibition Take a Breath.
Works by Dorothy Cross, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, and Isabel Nolan are included in Following Threads, an exhibition of textile-based work at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.
Isabel Nolan is interviewed by Martin Herbert for the April issue of ArtReview.
Château La Coste is delighted to announce a solo exhibition ‘499 seconds’ by the multi-disciplinary Irish artist, Isabel Nolan, to include paintings, sculpture and a large new tapestry.
Solo exhibition comprising paintings, drawings and objects, reflecting Nolan’s ongoing interest in modes of human organisation, the shifting status of artefacts and images over long periods of time.
Brian Maguire and Isabel Nolan at Crawford Art Gallery, 'Odysseys', curated by Flicka Small and Michael Waldron.
Curated by artist Isabel Nolan for aemi and coinciding with ‘Spaced Out’, Nolan’s exhibition of new rugs and paintings at Kerlin Gallery, ‘So, what did you do today?’ is a programme of short films that illuminates aspects of Nolan’s work in drawing, sculpture, tapestry and the moving image.
Isabel Nolan speaks with Dónal Dineen for Episode Three of 'We Are The Makers', with particular emphasis on the making of her latest exhibition, A Delicate Bond Which is Also a Gap, at Solstice Arts Centre in Navan.
Solstice Arts Centre open a significant exhibition of work by Isabel Nolan. ‘A delicate bond which is also a gap’ ranges across a vast span of time beginning with woven images of the 40,000 year old sculpture “Löwenmensch” and concluding with an ambitious, specially commissioned tapestry depicting the disintegration of the sun. The exhibition includes new textile work, sculptures, drawings, painting and text.
