Siobhán McDonald's 'Sonance' Exhibition Opens at Taylor Galleries Dublin with Works in Peat, Moss and Sumi Ink
One of Ireland's most distinctive and intellectually rigorous visual artists has opened a new solo exhibition at one of Dublin's most respected commercial galleries, presenting a body of work that pushes the boundaries of what painting and drawing can be. Siobhán McDonald's Sonance, which opened at Taylor Galleries on Kildare Street on June 12, brings together a new series of works created in 2026 that explore the deep time of the natural world — its geological formations, its ecological processes, its slow and patient transformations — through materials that are themselves drawn from the earth: peat, moss, sediment, and sumi ink on Japanese paper.
Background
Siobhán McDonald has been one of the most consistently interesting figures in Irish visual art for the past two decades. Her practice is rooted in a deep engagement with science, ecology, and the natural world, and she has developed a distinctive approach to materials that involves using substances drawn from the environments she is exploring — volcanic ash, deep-sea sediment, meteorite dust — to create works that are simultaneously beautiful and conceptually rigorous. Her previous exhibitions have been shown at major institutions in Ireland and internationally, and she has received numerous awards and residencies in recognition of her contribution to Irish art.
Taylor Galleries, which has been one of the most important commercial galleries in Dublin since its founding in 1978, has a long relationship with McDonald and has been the venue for several of her most significant solo exhibitions. The gallery's location on Kildare Street, in the heart of Dublin's cultural quarter, makes it one of the most accessible and visible venues for contemporary art in the city, and its programme consistently reflects the highest standards of Irish and international contemporary practice.
The title Sonance — a word that refers to the quality of sound, particularly in relation to resonance and harmony — reflects McDonald's interest in the connections between different sensory experiences and different ways of knowing the world. The works in the exhibition are not about sound in a literal sense, but they explore the idea that the natural world communicates through processes and patterns that are analogous to music — rhythmic, layered, and full of meaning for those who know how to listen.
Key Developments
The exhibition opened on June 12 and will run until July 4, providing visitors with nearly a month to engage with McDonald's new work. The works in the exhibition were created specifically for this show, representing a new direction in McDonald's practice that builds on her previous explorations of geological time and ecological process while introducing new materials and new formal approaches.
The use of peat as a primary material is particularly resonant in an Irish context. Peat — or turf — has been central to Irish life for centuries, providing fuel, shaping the landscape, and preserving within its layers the evidence of thousands of years of ecological and human history. McDonald's use of peat in her work is not nostalgic or sentimental; it is a rigorous engagement with a material that carries within it the compressed record of deep time, and that is itself under threat from the environmental changes that are transforming the Irish landscape.
The combination of peat and sumi ink on Japanese paper creates works of extraordinary textural complexity, in which the organic irregularity of the natural materials is held in tension with the precision and control of the artist's mark-making. The resulting works are simultaneously geological and painterly, scientific and poetic — a combination that is characteristic of McDonald's best practice.
Why It Matters
McDonald's exhibition matters because it represents Irish visual art at its most ambitious and most intellectually serious. At a time when the Irish arts sector is under pressure from funding cuts and the cost-of-living crisis, exhibitions like Sonance demonstrate the continued vitality and ambition of Irish artistic practice and the importance of maintaining the infrastructure — galleries, funding bodies, residency programmes — that makes such work possible.
The exhibition also matters because of its engagement with environmental themes that are of urgent contemporary relevance. McDonald's exploration of geological time and ecological process is not escapist — it is a way of thinking about the relationship between human activity and the natural world that is both scientifically informed and aesthetically compelling. In a cultural moment when the climate crisis is one of the defining challenges of our time, art that engages seriously with the natural world has a particular value.
The choice of materials — peat, moss, sediment — also connects McDonald's work to specifically Irish landscapes and specifically Irish environmental concerns. The draining and burning of Irish peatlands has been one of the most significant environmental issues in the country for decades, and McDonald's use of peat as an artistic material is a way of drawing attention to the value and fragility of these landscapes without resorting to didacticism or polemic.
Local Impact
The exhibition will be accessible to visitors from across Dublin and beyond throughout its run at Taylor Galleries. The gallery is open Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 AM to 5:30 PM and Saturday from 11:00 AM to 4:30 PM, with free admission. Its location on Kildare Street, close to the National Museum, the National Library, and Leinster House, makes it easily accessible by public transport from across the city.
For Dublin's arts community, the opening of a new Siobhán McDonald exhibition is a significant event in the cultural calendar. McDonald's work attracts serious critical attention and a loyal audience of collectors, curators, and arts professionals, and the opening of Sonance is expected to draw visitors from across the Irish arts world as well as international visitors who are familiar with her practice.
What's Next
Sonance runs at Taylor Galleries until July 4. A catalogue of the exhibition, featuring essays by leading critics and full-colour reproductions of the works, will be published to coincide with the show. McDonald is also scheduled to give a public talk at the gallery in late June, discussing her practice and the ideas behind the new work. Details of the talk will be announced on the gallery's website and social media channels.
