Cristín Leach

Art critic and cultural commentator

Cristín Leach is an art critic and cultural commentator, writing about art for The Sunday Times Ireland since 2003 and contributing to RTÉ TV, radio, and digital since 1998. She co-presented the award-winning RTÉ Lyric FM series Through the Canvas …

Musician and artist Kim Gordon has her first ever Irish solo show in IMMA this summer

Visual art shows to see in 2019

Culture's Art Critic Cristín Leach looks at the year ahead in Irish art exhibitions...

visual arts • 08 Feb 19

Nuala-O'Donovan. 'Coral-Skeletal' (Pic: Janice-O'Connell, F22 Photography)

Q: Is it art? A: Does it matter?

The Crawford Art Gallery in Cork has opened a new show featuring the work of six contemporary "artist makers" as they are sometimes called, or craft artists or fine art crafters, or fine crafters, perhaps?

visual arts • 29 Nov 18

Nigel Rolfe, Arctic Action Live Performance, Spitsbergen 2015

Performance artist Nigel Rolfe to open cross-border Brexit show

With its implementation still in hot turmoil, a long-planned, two-venue art exhibition in response to Brexit will open this week on both sides of the Irish border, with performances by an artist known for his use of blood, mud, water, milk and flour.

visual arts • 22 Nov 18

Caravaggio's 'The Taking of Christ' at 25 - the inside story

One of the great joys of the internet lies in occasionally stumbling upon personal websites that publicly record the kind of anecdotes that can only come from oral history and family lore, but which have wider historical associations.

visual arts • 19 Nov 18

Eva Rothschild will also represent Ireland at the 2019 Venice Biennale

Eva Rothschild to make Double Rainbow for Dublin Docklands

The Dublin-born London-based artist Eva Rothschild is set to make a new outdoor sculpture "on a monumental scale" at The Central Bank's new Docklands Campus location in Dublin.

visual arts • 15 Nov 18

A detail from The Startled Bird (1961) by Norah McGuinness

Through The Canvas: Cristin Leach on The Startled Bird

Every week, critic Cristin Leach talks us through a different artwork for Through The Canvas on RTÉ lyric fm - this week, in the final episode, she's taking a closer look at The Startled Bird (1961) by Norah McGuinness.

visual arts • 04 Apr 22

Through The Canvas: Cristin Leach goes Through the Looking Glass

Every week, critic Cristin Leach talks us through a different artwork for Through The Canvas on RTÉ lyric fm - this week, she's taking a closer look at William McKeown's Hope Painting (Going Through the Looking Glass).

visual arts • 03 Sep 18

Through The Canvas: Cristin Leach on a Jack B. Yeats classic

Every week, critic Cristin Leach talks us through a different artwork for Through The Canvas on RTÉ lyric fm - this week, she's taking a closer look at Jack B. Yeats' iconic painting The Liffey Swim.

visual arts • 14 Aug 18

Walter Osborne, In a Dublin Park, Light and Shade (1895) - photo © National Gallery of Ireland

Through The Canvas: Cristin Leach on a classic Dublin view

Every week, critic Cristin Leach talks us through a different artwork for Through The Canvas on RTÉ lyric fm - this week, she's taking a closer look at Walter Osborne's 1895 painting In a Dublin Park, Light and Shade.

visual arts • 04 Apr 22

Through The Canvas: Cristin Leach goes Out Here

Every week, critic Cristin Leach talks us through a different artwork for Through The Canvas on RTÉ lyric fm - this week, she's taking a closer look at Oliver Comerford's Out Here III (2003).

Through The Canvas • 11 Sep 18