Over nearly four decades, Gerard Byrne has developed a vast artistic practice that turns the ordinary into something quietly extraordinary. This exhibition brings together the full range of his practice: industrial structures and working ports, flowers caught in Spring's light, figures in a silent exchange, city streets, coastlines, canals, and distant places observed with the same care. Different subjects, one unique eye.
Byrne paints anything that can hold his gaze. Dublin's docklands and Georgian doorways. The National Botanic Gardens, Seapoint, Sorrento Terrace. The Notre-dame in Paris, London's Albert Bridge, Croatian waters. Cranes, bridges, parties. The sea in complex motion. His industrial works carry the authority of someone who understands structure, informed by years working as an electrician on Irish lighthouses. Naturally, the seascapes come from long familiarity with the sea, shaped by time, weather, and experience.
Byrne's still lifes and florals are generous with light and colour, while his figurative works hum with human presence: bodies leaning in, the charge between people, moments that feel alive with narrative tension. Across charcoal, oil, and paint on canvas, Byrne’s touch remains direct, physical, and unmistakably his.
The exhibition opens in Gerard Byrne Gallery’s new home at 13 Trinity Street: an atmospheric, 2,000 sq ft space housed in a historic 1909 building, expansive and industrial in character. Following a standout year that included his New York debut and major international attention, Byrne returns to Dublin’s city centre. World-class painting, celebrating its own roots.
In an age of endless images and instant consumption, this exhibition is an invitation to pause. To stand in front of something handmade. To let your eye settle. An ode to an incoming year of analog: art that resists scrolling, rewards patience, and reminds us that beauty, closely observed, still matters. Now more than ever.
Phot. Emmylie Cruz
Phot. Johnny Mallin
Videography: Tigran Chakhoian
