Devenney’s hybrid installation Paradoxical Properties investigates the function and form of objects and the structural ambivalence between real and illusionary space. Utilising constructed stage sets, digital video, props, sculptural objects and assemblage, the work seeks to generate environments that incorporate the language associated with theatre and television. These environments mimic and explore space with the intention to appear as rehearsal or fractured scenography that exist as displaced fragments, amplifying its artifice.

Official Opening Thursday 7 June at 7pm, featuring performance

Exhibition runs until 22 July

Abbeyleix Further Education Centre

Annual Art/Craft/Design Exhibition

Students of QQI level 5 & 6 courses present work in a variety of disciplines including ceramics, textiles, drawing, print and painting. Work explores concepts of memory, identity, gender, landscape, loss and Repeal.

An exciting blend of contemporary art from emerging artists working and living locally.

See art.abbeyleixfec.ie for information on all art courses.

Exhibition will be opened by Leslie Keogh. A curator who has worked in the Natural History Museum in Dublin, and now works with the Heritage House in Abbeyleix.

Official Opening Thursday 3 May, 7pm | Exhibition runs until 2 June

Mary Burke Townscape

10 March - 30 April

Curated by Muireann Ni Chonaill, this is a collaboration between artist Mary Burke, the Department of Sociology at Maynooth University and Laois County Council Arts Office.

Painter Mary Burke was invited to make portraits of the homes of 12 families in Stradbally while sociologist Mary P. Corcoran has interviewed the participating families.

www.maryburke.ie

FREE EVENT from 2:30pm: A Dialogue with Architecture: Reinterpreting the Irish Town

2:30pm: Tour of 'Townscape', by Mary Burke and Muireann Ni Chonaill followed by seminar, chaired by Sinead O'Reilly, Arts Council

Speakers include:

Annette Moloney, Arts Consultant and Public Arts Advisor, Arts Council, will speak about funding opportunities including PERCENT FOR ART and other options for projects

Miriam Delaney, DIT Market Place Ireland at Venice (Mountmellick is featured in the exhibition)

Miriam is an architect and lecturer at the Dublin School of Architecture, DIT. Her research focuses on the history of Irish planned towns and villages.

Miriam is a member of the 'Free Market' team, who are Commissioning and Curating the Irish Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2018, exploring the past and future potential of Irish market towns.

RE-TOOLING YOUR TOWN - How the RIAI Town Tool Kit can help maximise your town's potential with Carole Pollard, FRIAI, DIT.

Carole is a registered architect and Past President of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland 2016-2017, her practice includes teaching, writing and research work in the area of architecture and design and she is an advocate for excellence in the built environment.

Talking Townscape: place attachment and community sentiment in Stradbally, Co. Laois with Mary P. Corcoran, Maynooth University

Mary is Professor of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. Her research interests lie primarily in the sociology of migration, urban transformation and public culture, areas in which she has published widely.

This is Mary’s second collaborative project with visual artist, Mary Burke.

Michael Parsons, Chairperson Heritage Council

*Short Film Screening of Town written and directed by Orla Murphy, School of Architecture, UCD

Orla is an architect, owner of Custom Architecture, and Assistant Professor in UCD School of Architecture, Planning and Environmental Policy.

She lives in Westport, Co Mayo and has extensively researched and published work exploring the challenges and potentials of rural Irish towns.

5pm Official Opening of Exhibition by Sinead O'Reilly, Arts Council

Tom Climent

Latitudes

19 January - 28 February

Based in Cork, Tom’s work over the last twenty years or so has varied from paintings of figurative, urban and landscape subjects. His most recent work tends to focus on the creation of a structured space, while investigating the boundaries between abstraction and representation. It suggests a narrative but never actually reveals what that might be.

www.tomcliment.com

Opening Reception on Friday, 19 January, 7pm*

*Followed at 8pm by the first in a new series of informal Jazz Music gigs in the Gallery & Bar. See event listings for details.