Public opening: Friday 8 September from 5pm

Exhibition dates: 9 September 2023 – 28 January 2024

Textile-based artworks have been a growing presence in art galleries over the last decade with artists investigating a variety of new and age-old concerns with fibres and threads. The boundaries of traditional techniques such as weaving and embroidery have been pushed by artists who are interested in embracing the potential of thread in contemporary art. 

Spotlighting areas of practice we are curious about and interested in, the exhibition will feature works by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Isabel Nolan, Matt Smith, Ciara O’Connor, Cecilia Danell, Mainie Jellett design by Ceodogàn rugs, Dorothy Cross, Michelle Malone, Jennifer Trouton, Anne Kiely and Mary Palmer.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain works with films, computer-generated imagery, collage, print, installation and tapestry. Intrusion III is a large-scale Jacquard tapestry translated from a loose digital collage depicting scenes of architectural ruination.

A recent addition to the gallery’s collection, Dorothy Cross’s work Daunt is an unusual medium for the artist. The tapestry brings to the fore familial and local geographic traces by replicating a photograph taken by the artist’s father in the 1930s into a tangible object.

Isabel Nolan has an extensive practice in terms of media. Echoing stained glass of churches and grand chandeliers The Light Poured Out of You offers a dysfunctional, chandelier-like sculpture which casts fabric instead of light. Nolan’s powerful and playful signature work was one of the key works in Limerick’s EVA International Biennale (2018).