Open 10:30–5:00, Tuesday – Saturday
Focusing on representations of the Irish border in painting, print, photography, film, mixed-media and popular culture, as well as objects and ephemera; this exhibition explores how artists have reacted and responded to the border since 1922.
This exhibition will show communities on both sides of the border, and how the division of the country has impacted on the counties and region in a range of unique ways, moving away from stereotypical and clichéd depictions of the area.
Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery’s location as a cultural institution in Drogheda, within the border county of Louth, and the North East of the island, has ideally positioned it to draw on artistic partnerships and local contacts, networks and institutions to present this major exhibition, to reveal a cultural response to the over one-hundred year old boundary. The gallery was developed in a cross-border capital project, and 2026 marks the twentieth anniversary of its founding.
Co-curated by Dr Orla Fitzpatrick and Aoife Ruane, the exhibition presents work by twenty nine artists including Array Collective, Kathleen Bridle, John Byrne, Garrett Carr, Krass Clement, Megan Doherty, Willie Doherty, Ciarán Dunbar, David Farrell, Kevin Fox, T.P. Flanagan, Ruth Gonsalves-Moore, Anthony Haughey, Jeremy Henderson, Sean Hillen, Dorothy Hunter, Ben Malcolmson, Mairéad McClean, Maurice McGonagle, F.E. McWilliam, William Monk, Locky Morris, Brian Newman, Kate Nolan, Dickey O’Rorke, Tony O’Shea, Akihiko Okamura, Dermot Seymour, Constance Shortt and Donovan Wylie, drawn from public and private collections from Ireland and Northern Ireland, and from artists’ studios.
With much of the original research supported by Trinity College Dublin, Ireland’s Border Culture: Literature, Arts, and Policy (IRBORDCUL) a two-year collaboration between Trinity College and the Seamus Heaney Centre at Queen’s University, Belfast supported by a Shared Island Project Award.
The public engagement programme for Picturing the Border 1921 – 2026 includes a seminar on Friday 2nd October from 11.30am with a range of contributions artists, art historians, afficionados reflecting important themes in the exhibition, and a key event in Co Louth’s Legendary Together Programme for Ireland’s Presidency of the European Union.
An accompanying exhibition guide will be published with a text by Dr. Orla Fitzpatrick.
Highlanes Gallery is grateful for the institutional loans from The Arts Council of Ireland, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, The F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Photomuseum Ireland, Armagh County Museum, Louth County Council Collection, Fermanagh County Museum, Enniskillen, and Newry and Mourne Museum.
