IMMA is proud to open the year with Irish Gothic, a major retrospective exhibition by one of Ireland’s most accomplished and respected artists, Patricia Hurl. Greatly admired by fellow artists, but overlooked for decades by the prevailing art system, this is Hurl’s first comprehensive exhibition, presenting work spanning over 40 years of the artist’s career.

In March IMMA presents another important large-scale solo exhibition by Sarah Pierce, Scene of the Myth, guest curated by Rike Frank and the European Kunsthalle. The exhibition features 12 major works, spanning 20 years, to highlight patterns of making and thinking that define Pierce’s art practice. Borne out of sticky relationships between the narratives we reproduce and those we wish to leave behind, Scene of the Myth asks what it means to protest, reflect, and act in community.

A key moment in the Spring is the launch of a new community space in the heart of the Museum, in partnership with Matheson Law Firm – The Matheson Creativity Hub in Memory of Tim Scanlon. Tim Scanlon, former Chairman of Matheson and Board Member of IMMA, was an important influence on IMMA’s thinking, who encouraged progressive programming and conversations that placed community engagement at the heart of the Museum’s activities. Following an invited design competition, the Creativity Hub winning design will be announced on the 21 March.

This summer IMMA will proudly present, Influence and Identity: Twentieth Century Portrait Photography from the Bank of America Collection, in partnership with the Bank of America. This is a major exhibition featuring the works of international photographers from the early through the mid-twentieth century, a period often called the ‘golden age of portrait photography’. The exhibition includes works by master portraitists such as Antony Armstrong-Jones, Richard Avedon, Yousuf Karsh, Gisèle Freund and Chuck Stewart, as well as renowned photographers Berenice Abbott, Imogen Cunningham, Garry Winogrand and Brassaï. This exhibition has been loaned through the Bank of America Art in our Communities program.

IMMA Outdoors returns once again in 2023 with a vibrant programme of artist commissions, performances, music, talks, workshops, and tours taking place across the site. And after a successful first year, 2023 sees the return of Earth Rising, IMMA’s Eco Art Festival celebrating people, place and planet, taking place over three days in September. In addition, IMMA’s much loved Summer Party will take place once again this July.

In the Autumn, IMMA presents a major museum wide exhibition, Self-Determination, as part of the Decade of Centenaries Programme that marks a century since the partition of Ireland and the subsequent formation of the Irish Free State in 1922. The exhibition focuses on the role of art and artists in shaping the island’s jurisdictions in the international context and aftermath of the First World War. This exhibition is part of a three-year initiative supported by the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media under the Decade of Centenaries Programme 2012-2023.

Other key exhibitions in 2023 include Championing Irish Art: The Mary and Alan Hobart Collection, opening in April, that explores the role the Hobart’s and the Pyms Gallery played in establishing a new canon of Irish art. Unseeing Traces also opens in April – an exhibition presented with New Communities Partnership (NCP), Ireland’s largest independent migrant-led national network. A solo exhibition by American artist Howardena Pindell opens in June comprising works from the 1970s to the present, and in August a series of works by two prominent painters will be exhibited – Irish artist Anne Madden and American artist Jo Baer. To conclude the year, IMMA is delighted to host the most important platform for visual art graduates in Ireland, The RDS Visual Art Awards in December.

Commenting on the 2023 programme, IMMA Director, Annie Fletcher said “It is a core mission of all of us at IMMA that our programme provides a space for all generations and communities to engage with creativity, innovative cultural perspectives, and the art of our time.  IMMA provides a unique space for exhibitions, discussions and programmes that reflect and address our current moment but also to create a moment to reflect on the past and the future.  

She continued, “It is wonderful to kick start the year with a museum scale retrospective of the work of Patricia Hurl. This is exactly the kind of exhibition IMMA should be programming – not only bringing world class international practice to Ireland, but also mobilising all the museum’s resources to research and exhibit what is an outstanding Irish painting practice.”

Scroll further down this page to discover more about our upcoming exhibition programme, which will be accompanied by a dynamic programme of talks, events, screenings, performances, artist residencies and artist commissions to be announced throughout the year.