Monday
Mise Éire: variations on the theme 'What is Irishness?'
25 large new wall pieces and sculptures by Cormac Boydell.
Catherine Hammond Gallery, 61 Bridge St, Skibbereen, Co Cork Until June 2
hammondgallery.com
Cormac Boydell employs consummate technical expertise to enable complete creative freedom. His ceramics, made with orangey terracotta clay, shaped by hand and richly coloured with glazes of his own devising, have a wonderful, flowing vitality. They are as though caught, fixed and fired in mid-flight, vessels of pure energy. Here, he reflects on his own experience of the notion and manifestation of "Irishness".
Tuesday
The Respectful Distance
Michael Canning. Oliver Sears Gallery, 29 Molesworth St, Dublin May 5-June 16
oliversearsgallery.com
The template for Michael Canning's paintings is a large-scale, botanically exact depiction of a plant usually regarded as a weed, given pride of place against an expansive, receding pastoral landscape. Engaging with the history of western representation, aesthetic and functional, pictorial and scientific, they look to "the relationships between imagery and its meanings, matter and its transformations, history, memory and fact".
Galway Theatre Festival
Various venues until May 7
galwaytheatrefestival.com
There are nine days of this year's festival. now also celebrating its ninth year, with a theme of "(r)Evolution ... that reflects on voices that were silenced in the following 100 years" after the Rising. Among the shows to choose from today are The Little and Large Experience, Always Alone Together and Orpheus Road and Touched.
Wednesday
Dixie Chicks
3Arena Dublin 8pm €49.65
ticketmaster.ie
Natalie Maines, Emily Robison and Martie Maguire are the best-selling country music group in the US. From their bluegrass origins, Dixie Chicks have gravitated towards a more contemporary country/pop sound as well as talking an occasional controversial political stance. Expect a mixture of the two, then.
Thursday
Post Office
New work by Corban Walker. Hillsboro Fine Art, 49 Parnell Sq West, Dublin Until May 28
hillsborofineart.com
The post office referred to is the Mies van der Rohe Post Office building in Chicago that Corban Walker loves. A handmade book and a series of works on paper, plus his own postage stamp, relate directly to the building. The exhibition also features five new sculptures made at the Calder Foundation and Cultural Irlandais Paris. These intricate, multiple-element pieces are made variously from clay, aluminium and stainless steel.
Kevin Brady Trio feat. Bill Carrothers & Norma Winstone
Triskel Christchurch, Tobin st., 8.30pm, 20/18/16,
triskelartscentre.ie
Dublin drummer Kevin Brady's collaborations with the acclaimed Bill Carrothers have already yielded several excellent recordings, and the fearlessly original pianist from Minnesota has become a regular and welcome visitor to these shores. Add legendary UK vocalist and ECM artist Norma Winstone, simply one of the finest and most intrepid jazz singers of her generation, and you have dream-team ensemble capable of anything. They launch their new album Ensam with a short Irish tour, starting tonight in the Triskel. Trust me, you have nothing better to do.
