Irish artists at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale Isabel Nolan, Alan Phelan, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon

Running from May to November, the main exhibition, In Minor Keys, was conceived by the late curator Koyo Kouoh and brings together artists and collectives from around the world.

As part of our ongoing commitment to the visual arts, we are among the patrons supporting Ireland at Venice, Ireland’s national representation at the event.

Artist Isabel Nolan is exhibiting at the Irish Pavilion at the 2026 Biennale with her commission Dreamshook. Three other Irish artists, Alan Phelan, Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, were also invited by Koyo Kouoh to exhibit in In Minor Keys.

Isabel Nolan: Dreamshook

The exhibition takes its title from a word Nolan coined for waking from a dream, when reality feels briefly unstable.

Through hand-tufted tapestry, drawing and sculpture, the work explores the human condition, drawing on the Middle Ages and early Renaissance as a mirror for our own turbulent times.

Commissioned by Culture Ireland in partnership with The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Dreamshook is curated by Dr Georgina Jackson with The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art and produced by Cian O’Brien.

It will return home to Ireland for a national tour in 2027, opening at The Douglas Hyde Gallery on Thursday 11 March before travelling to the Regional Cultural Centre in Letterkenny for Saturday 10 July. Its final venue will be Ormston House in Limerick, where it will be shown from Thursday 18 November.

Alice Maher: Les Filles d'Ouranos and The Sibyls

Alice Maher’s work explores gender and identity in post-colonial Ireland through drawing, sculpture, video and installation. In Venice, she shows Les Filles d'Ouranos, a reworking of Aphrodite's birth, and The Sibyls, drawings of mythic prophetic women paired with mirrored bronze sculpture.

Maher’s work also forms part of our own art collection. In 2024, the firm acquired Nereid, a charcoal and pencil work on paper, through the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery.

Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon: The Map

The Map, created by Alice Maher and Rachel Fallon, is a large-scale textile piece drawing on the life and legacy of Mary Magdalene, and her impact on women’s lives.

Fallon is a Dublin-based visual artist whose work examines women’s relationships to society, often through motherhood and domestic life. The artists have collaborated since 2017 and have developed a shared practice rooted in feminist history.

Alan Phelan

Alan Phelan's work increasingly centres on the Joly screen process, an early colour photography method invented in Trinity College Dublin in the 1890s. He revived the technique almost a decade ago and has since extended it into public art projects and architectural interventions. Drawing on art history and cultural references, his work uses the process to revisit how images are made and remembered.

At Venice, he is showing 20 Joly screen photographs alongside text pieces and a major site-specific intervention.

The 2026 Venice Art Biennale runs until 22 November, with exhibitions across the Giardini, Arsenale and other venues in the city. Visitor information is available on the La Biennale di Venezia website.

Supporting emerging artists is a core pillar of our CSR strategy.

Read more about our support of visual arts

With thanks to Kevin Kavanagh, The Molesworth Gallery and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art for sharing images and supporting material for this article.