Cristín Leach

Art Critic

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 …

Cruinniú na Cásca Preview - the role of the critic

Last February, two plays by Enda Walsh ran concurrently, in Dublin and Cork. At The Abbey, a touring production of Walsh's critically acclaimed 2016 Galway Arts Festival production, Arlington; in Cork, in the disused city jail, a new play called The Same.

Culture • 11 Apr 17

Ten gems from the National Self Portrait Collection

At the University of Limerick, a zeitgeist-y treasure-trove of self-representations by Irish artists represents something of a hidden gem.

visual arts • 27 Mar 17

A detail from 'Knot Yet' by sculptor Martha Quinn

Made Of Stone - five Irish artists still carving in stone

From medieval stone-carved Síle na Gigs depicting naked women the abstract carvings of circles, spirals and lozenges at the Megalithic passage grave at Newgrange in County Meath, Ireland has a centuries-old tradition of artists carving in stone.

Culture • 13 Mar 17

How Ireland's street artists went global

Over the past number of years, Irish street art has been moving slowly mainstream. The best of it is now embraced not only by the public, but by commercial and branding interests, and traditional galleries.

Visual Art • 21 Feb 17

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610)
The Taking of Christ, 1602 - on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Leeson St., Dublin, who acknowledge the kind generosity of the late Dr Marie Lea-Wilson. Photo © NG

Fresh Paint: The National Gallery of Ireland reopens

For almost six years now, the vast majority of the exhibition space in the sprawling complex that is the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) has been closed for refurbishment.

Visual Art • 09 Mar 17

A detail from Jennifer, by Stephen Johnson

Fresh Irish painters: 10 under 30 to watch

A new generation of Irish artists are pushing the boundaries and potential of paintbrush and paint. From abstraction to photorealism, here are ten of the most notable painters under the age of thirty, working in Ireland right now.

visual arts • 27 Jan 17

Artist Amanda Coogan, pictured performing I'll Sing You a Song from Around the Town at the RHA, Dublin in 2015

Passing time, time passing - Ireland's time-based artists

Ireland has a relatively long, if somewhat unacknowledged history of producing artists who excel at making time-based work, writes Cristín Leach.

Time-based art • 10 Jan 17

An image from Duncan Campbell's new film The Welfare of Tomás Ó Hallissy, now on show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin

Duncan Campbell at IMMA - The Welfare of Tomás Ó Hallissy

Cristín Leach views a major new work at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) by Dublin-born Duncan Campbell, the first Irish artist to win the prestigious Turner Prize.

Culture • 09 Feb 17

From Women on Walls: a detail from Blaise Smith's portrait of eight female scientists chosen as representatives of a generation of outstanding young female scientists working in Ireland today.

Putting Ireland's groundbreaking Women on Walls at the RIA

On 7 December, the Women on Walls project unveiled five new portraits of ground-breaking women at the Royal Irish Academy (RIA). No portrait of a woman had hung in the RIA in its 231-year history.

Culture • 06 Mar 17