The Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) has announced its exciting 2025 programme, kicking off with a major three-year display celebrating its Permanent Collection.
IMMA Collection: Art as Agency will spotlight over 100 artists from the 1960s to today, featuring key works, including recent acquisitions. This expansive exhibition, opening on February 6, takes a dynamic approach—spanning thematic, chronological, geographical, and media-based perspectives—to explore how art resonates across time and context. By weaving together historical and contemporary narratives, it offers fresh interpretations, prompting audiences to consider how art shapes our understanding and actions in the world.
Patricia Hurl, ‘Flight’, 1989
Textile Art and Groundbreaking Solo Exhibitions
Textile artistry takes center stage in IMMA’s 2025 programme, with two solo exhibitions showcasing artists whose work connects to Ireland.
Opening February 28, the first exhibition highlights the renowned Gee’s Bend Quiltmakers, an extraordinary collective of African American women from Alabama. With a 150-year tradition of quilt-making, their works have profound artistic and political significance, having gained prominence during the Civil Rights Movement as symbols of Black empowerment and cultural identity. These vibrant quilts reflect deep-rooted histories of family, heritage, and community.
On June 13, IMMA presents a major solo exhibition of Sam Gilliam (1933–2022), a pivotal figure in post-war American painting. Co-organized with the Sam Gilliam Foundation, the exhibition showcases his revolutionary Drape paintings—bold, unstretched canvases suspended from walls and ceilings, blurring the lines between painting, sculpture, and architecture. Gilliam’s connection to Ireland dates back to his influential residency at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo, in the early 1990s, where he expanded his exploration of sewn and collaged works, merging abstraction with materiality in new and unexpected ways.
Staying with the Trouble: Challenging Human-Centric Narratives
Opening on May 2, Staying with the Trouble brings together over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices engage with the pressing themes of our time. Inspired by philosopher and author Donna Haraway’s seminal book, the exhibition challenges human-centered perspectives, advocating for a multi-species, multi-kin worldview through sculpture, film, painting, installation, and performance.
Myrid Carten, Study for Fox Cry, 35mm, 2018
Cecilia Vicuña: A Poetic Exploration of Reverse Migration
Internationally acclaimed artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña brings Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey to IMMA on November 7. This deeply personal exhibition explores ancestry, ecological urgency, and human interconnectedness, drawing on Vicuña’s discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland. Inspired by her 2006 visit, where she and her partner James O’Hern paid tribute to Ireland’s archaeological sites through rituals of gratitude, the exhibition interweaves personal memory, indigenous traditions, and a dialogue with Irish heritage. Central to the show is a site-specific quipu—an ancient Andean communication system of knotted cords—created with local artisans, referencing the symbolism of Aran sweaters and their ties to nature and seafaring traditions.
Cecilia Vicuña
Virgen Puta, 2021
EARTH RISING 2025: A Festival of Art, Ecology, and Ideas
Returning from September 12–14, IMMA’s much-anticipated EARTH RISING festival will once again ignite transformative conversations around climate and culture. This year’s theme, Making Kin, invites audiences to forge deeper connections—with each other, the environment, and the urgent challenges of our time. Expect thought-provoking installations, interactive workshops, and inspiring voices merging creativity with climate action, offering fresh perspectives and a space for collective imagination.
With a dynamic and thought-provoking lineup, IMMA’s 2025 programme promises to be a landmark year, bringing together global voices, new commissions, and vital discussions on art’s role in shaping the world.
Header: Sam Gilliam, Silhouette/Template (2), 1994. Painted fabric collage, stitched. Installation dimensions: 152 x 190 x 28 cm. Courtesy of Sam Gilliam Foundation.
