An outstanding exhibition by Irish photographic artist Rhiannon Adam is one of the many highlights at the second renewal of Dublin Gallery Weekend.
Dublin Gallery Weekend returns from 5-8th November 2026, bringing four days of contemporary art, exhibitions and cultural events to venues across the capital. Following a record breaking 2025 edition, this year’s programme brings together leading Irish artists and galleries alongside new opportunities for audiences to engage with the visual arts through exhibitions, talks, workshops and citywide collaborations.
An exciting new addition is the €40,000 Château La Coste Irish Visual Arts Awards, which recognises both lifetime achievement and mid-career excellence, with winners receiving the opportunity to present solo exhibitions at Château La Coste.
Two exhibitions in particular which caught our eye explores the nature of individuality, representation and connections with one another.
When we think of outer space, the moon… it is difficult to not associate it with Neil Armstrong’s declaration; “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. The moon is 384,399 kilometers away from Earth. A planet which has only ever been in direct contact with men.
52 years after the first Moon landing, an even greater leap for mankind was to be achieved through Rhiannon Adam, the only woman chosen out of one million applicants, to be a part of an eight-person crew to venture beyond the Karman Line.
Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa announced a global search for eight artists to join him on a week-long lunar mission aboard SpaceX Starship: the first civilian mission to deep space. After a lengthy selection process, the Cork born photographer got the call to go beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
“It is difficult to explain what being selected for space feels like. There was euphoria, unworthiness and a paralysing sense of responsibility – as the only woman, as the first Irish person selected to go to space, and as a queer person – I had a lot to live up to”.
An exhibition out of Earth’s atmosphere comes with an intense dedication towards preparation. “For three years, I lived and breathed it as my reality.” Adam devoted herself to the space industry. Preparing for the journey ahead while also confronting her own mortality along with the responsibility of representing marginalised voices.
The experience was deeply emotional and all consuming, shaping both her personal life and her creative work. However, in June 2024, Maezawa abruptly cancelled the mission, leaving the crew bereft and directionless.
That sense of loss was channelled into a new project for Adam. ‘Rhi-Entry’ is an exhibition of art that Adam made to process the mission being scrapped. The work she showcases blurs fact and fiction through moving images, photographs, and ephemera, reflecting on Adam’s psychological recalibration and her struggle to return to a “normal” life.
It is often cited that re-entry (or Rhi-entry) is the most dangerous part of spaceflight, and for Adam, this rings true, despite never having left our planet.
Apollo 8’s 1968 astronaut, Bill Anders suggested that NASA “should have sent poets” to capture the sense of wonder he experienced. When ‘dearMoon’ ultimately failed to fulfil this vision by inviting creatives to reflect on humanity from space, Adam realised the importance of marginalised voices getting to participate in the space industry.
As she describes it; “this presentation stands as a shrine to lost dreams and an urgent call for alternative voices in the space industry.” With her portraits, she joins other contemporary artists whose work highlights the lack of diversity within space programmes.
Adam’s series, which will be on display during Dublin Gallery Weekend, brings the often abstract and mysterious business of space travel and tells audiences why they should care. The artist’s deeply personal connection to the democratisation of space missions is a reminder of why representation matters, and how politics is inextricably tied up in exploration.
Adam’s involvement and subsequent exclusion from a SpaceX mission acts as a warning to every person: space is the next frontier of exploration and expansion, and we must ensure that all voices are heard as we enter this next stage of scientific discovery.
SO Fine Art Editions and Island Photographers present ‘Island Portrait’, which is a major group exhibition that brings together 16 leading Irish and international photographic artists to explore portraiture, identity, presence and human connection.
Opening on 5th November as part of Dublin Gallery Weekend 2026, the exhibition brings together a diverse range of approaches to the photographic portrait, from documentary and editorial photography to conceptual and experimental practices.
The essence of ‘Island Portrait’ is the relationship between photographer and subject: the exchange, negotiation and encounter that takes place in front of the camera. Across the exhibition, portraiture becomes a way of looking beyond appearance, unearthing questions around identity, belonging, culture, memory and place.
Each piece explores intimacy and vulnerability alongside wider social questions, including community, gender, sexuality, youth, migration and social identity.
The exhibition presents a range of artists, each bringing a distinctive approach to portraiture as diverse as their subjects. Conor O’Leary’s collaborative practice is rooted in conversation and human connection, creating an atmosphere of trust in which his subjects can feel seen and understood.
Cian Oba-Smith similarly focuses on communities and individuals who have often been overlooked or misrepresented, while his work addressing knife violence in London considers the impact of social and political failures on young people.
Questions of identity and belonging run throughout the exhibition. Dónal Talbot’s practice explores authentic perception and queer identity, while Shia Conlon examines trans experience through memory, place, desire and erotic life across photography, film, sculpture, writing and archival research.
Scott Nokia’s multidisciplinary work considers the intersection between personal experience and wider structural forces, with ritual and identity recurring throughout their practice.
Patryk Gizicki’s analogue photography explores emigration, heritage and belonging, reflecting on the distance between his Polish childhood and Irish upbringing.
For others, portraiture becomes a way of exploring youth, community and contemporary culture. Eimear Lynch’s socially engaged photography examines youth culture, beauty, consumerism and girlhood, while Megan Doherty creates darkly cinematic images exploring youth, escapism, subculture and identity.
Rich Gilligan’s practice moves between portraiture, fashion, documentary and youth culture, informed by his early work photographing skateboarding.
Linda Brownlee’s intimate portraits similarly examine the relationship between people and their environments, focusing on gesture, behaviour and the subtle dynamics of human interaction.
The exhibition also demonstrates how contemporary portraiture can move beyond the conventional photographic image. Eamonn Doyle’s ‘AS IF’, created in collaboration with Niall Sweeney and David Donohoe, combines photography with film, sound, music, painting and text to create an immersive exploration of the physical world and human psyche.
Miriam O’Connor’s conceptual practice questions the limitations and possibilities of photography, while Sofia De Rosa uses movement, gesture and the body to explore vulnerability, tension and emotional states.
Rhiannon Adam brings a research led approach shaped by questions of social injustice, outsider communities and power. Her wider practice moves between photography, archive, video and audio, often occupying the space between fact and fiction.
Gareth McConnell’s work similarly explores complex relationships between community, class, memory, addiction and the legacies of conflict and colonialism.
Completing the exhibition are the practices of Irish photographer Timothy O’Connell, whose post documentary work considers culture and identity; and the wider photographic approaches of the artists brought together across ‘Island Portrait’.
Together, their work demonstrates the continued richness and diversity of contemporary photography in Ireland.
Organised by SO Fine Art Editions and Island Photographers, an artist-led initiative supporting contemporary photographic practice in Ireland since 2023, ‘Island Portrait’ offers a timely examination of what it means to look at, and be looked at, through photography.
Words: Aoife Summerville
Feature Image: Rhiannon Adam, They Should Have Sent Poets from the series Rhi-Entry
Dublin Gallery Weekend 2026 | Thursday 5 – Sunday 8 November
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