Gerard Byrne: Baggatonia Festival’s Artist of the Year: The Oriel Gallery
“I paint what stays with me—the shadow of a terrace, a canal’s shimmer—as if I might hold its memory in oil.” — Gerard Byrne
The Oriel Gallery presents "Baggotonia Reflections," a special exhibition coinciding with Dublin's celebrated Baggotonia Festival. Thiscurated show features approximately 20 recent works by Gerard Byrne, capturing his deep engagement with Dublin's Bohemian Quarter and the broader cultural landscape of contemporary Ireland.
Launching Thursday, September 18, the exhibition showcases Byrne's continued exploration of his native city, with particular focus on the atmospheric qualities that make Dublin's Georgian streets and canal-side locations endlessly compelling subjects. These works demonstrate Byrne's ability to find extraordinary beauty in familiar places, transforming everyday Dublin scenes into profound meditations on light, architecture, and urban life.
The exhibition includes plein air studies completed along the Grand Canal, where Byrne has been frequently spotted with his easel, capturing the interplay of historic architecture and flowing water. Additional works feature intimate interior scenes and street studies that reveal Byrne's keen eye for the details that define Dublin's character—the particular quality of light filtering through Georgian windows, the relationship between pedestrians and the built environment, the way weather transforms familiar spaces.
Several pieces reflect the artist at work in the Baggotonia area, painting canal-side barges and working en plein air near the Dylan Hotel. The collection captures Byrne's working process and his commitment to direct observation and immediate response to the environment.
Byrne's approach to Dublin subjects reflects his broader artistic philosophy:
"I want to paint how it feels to be there—the warmth of the sun, the tension in the air, the memory that place gives you."
In these Baggotonia works, viewers encounter not just topographical accuracy but emotional truth, places rendered with the kind of intimate knowledge that comes from repeated encounters and a sense of belonging.
As Ireland's foremost Modern Impressionist, Byrne brings to these local subjects the same intensity and technical mastery that has earned him international recognition. The Baggotonia paintings demonstrate how the Impressionist tradition, filtered through contemporary Irish experience, continues to yield fresh insights into the relationship between place, light, and human consciousness.
The exhibition runs in conjunction with the broader Baggotonia Festival celebrations, positioning Byrne's intimate vision of Dublin within the area's rich cultural programming and establishing the Oriel Gallery as a key destination for contemporary Irish art.