Art may feed the soul, but the stomach needs to be satisfied too. Happily, a trip to a gallery can meet both requirements. We’ve put together our picks of what to see at your local art gallery right now, and where you can grab a good coffee or a bite in arty surroundings afterwards.
Hugh Lane Gallery
The Hugh Lane Gallery, on Parnell Square in Dublin 1, is exhibiting Bacon’s Portraits of Women, which explores Francis Bacon’s paintings of his friends Henrietta Moraes, Muriel Belcher and Isabel Rawsthorne, until July 30th. After that, Ailbhe Ní Bhriain’s The Dream Pool Intervals will be on display until September 28th. Boghanna Báistí Beaga, an interactive display for young children created by Helen Barry and children from Holy Child Preschool on Sean MacDermott Street, is also on show until September 28th. The gallery’s permanent collection is always on show, of course, featuring work by Claude Monet, Pierre Bonard, Mary Swanzy, Harry Clarke and more.
The Hugh Lane’s on-site Grá cafe has plenty of options to replenish you after a day of perusing the gallery’s art, with offerings such as toasties, seasonal specials and sweet treats.
Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Irish Museum of Modern Art, in the beautiful 17th-century Royal Hospital Kilmainham building in Dublin 8, is showcasing more than 100 artists, from the 1960s to the present, in Art as Agency, an exhibition drawn from its permanent collection that’s on show in Gallery One until February 2028. Staying with the Trouble, in Gallery Two, features works by more than 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists; they’re on show until September 21st. A solo exhibition, Sewing Fields, by the abstract artist Sam Gilliam, is on show in the House Galleries until January 25th, 2026. In Gallery Three, Kith and Kin, displayed until October 27th, features the textile work of African American women from a small Alabama community.
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Imma’s on-site Fruition cafe, in the vaulted cellars of the museum, has an array of options, including soups, salads and avocado toast. Or you could grab a coffee and a toastie from its coffee truck in the courtyard.
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland, on Merrion Square in Dublin 2, has a permanent collection that you can visit without charge all year round. Work by two of Ireland’s pioneering women artists, Mainie Jellett and Evie Hone, is on show in The Art of Friendship exhibition, which brings together 90 of their pieces. It runs until August 10th, on a ticketed basis. The gallery’s An Artist’s Presence exhibition explores how artists have placed themselves in their work through drawings and paintings from the gallery’s permanent collection. Admission to this exhibition is free; it runs until September 14th. Créatúir na Cartlainne/Tails from the Archive, featuring work that celebrates our relationship with animals by Stephen McKenna, Bea Orpen, Barrie Cooke, Anne Yeats, Deborah Brown and others, is also free to visit.
The Gallery Cafe is on the ground floor of the Millennium Wing as you enter from Clare Street. Light bites such as bagels and pastries sit on the menu alongside salads, sandwiches and soup.
RHA Gallery
The Royal Hibernian Academy gallery, on Ely Place in Dublin 2, is exhibiting its 195th RHA Annual Exhibition until August 3rd, with free entry.
Located within the gallery, Margadh is a cafe during the day and a wine bar at night. The cafe menu provides options such as avocado toast, granola and pastries; options at the wine bar include a tasting menu.
The Model
The Model, in Sligo, is currently exhibiting Jack Butler Yeats: The Dreaming Road, which runs until November 1st. It’s also showing Extra Alphabets, by Mairead O’hEocha, and Flights from Reason, a programme of new works by film artists from Ireland, France, Britain, Poland and Sweden, both until September 20th.
The Model’s Ósta cafe offers a variety of soup, sandwiches, pancakes, sweet treats and more.
Limerick City Gallery of Art
LCGA, which is free to visit, on Pery Square in the city centre, is currently showing On Waking, which features new and existing work by the Irish and British painters Jenny Eden, Christopher Hanlon, Harminder Judge, Gillian Lawler, Damien Meade, Karen Roulstone and Rebecca Sitar. It runs until August 10th.
LGCA’s on-site cafe, Zest, provides a range of salads, soup and bread, with family meals, platters and sweet treats available.
Butler Gallery
The Butler Gallery, on John’s Quay in Kilkenny, is exhibiting Through Line, by the Kilkenny-based, Netherlands-born artist Paul Bokslag, until July 20th. Its ongoing exhibitions of the O’Malley and Butler Gallery collections are also on display, showing the work of the late Kilkenny-born artist Tony O’Malley and artworks purchased by or donated to the gallery.
The Wild Flower cafe, located on site, has a variety of options, from a full Irish or avocado toast to cakes and salads.
