IMMA today announced its 2025 programme which opens with a major three-year display celebrating IMMA’s Permanent Collection titled IMMA Collection: Art as Agency, that showcases over 100 artists from the 1960s to the present, highlighting key works including many recent acquisitions. Through thematic, chronological, geographical, and media-based approaches, Art as Agency examines how artworks connect across time and contexts, fostering new interpretations and relevance. By interweaving historical and contemporary narratives, the exhibition invites audiences to reflect on the evolving meanings and possibilities of art in shaping our understanding of and action in the world. Opening on February 6 this ambitious exhibition allows for a rich durational experience of Ireland’s Modern and Contemporary Art Collection.
Central to the 2025 exhibition programme is an exploration of artists working with textiles, two of which share connections to Ireland. IMMA is presenting solo exhibitions of their work in Ireland for the first time. The first exhibition, opening on February 28, features the Gee’s Bend Quilltmakers, a group of African American women from a small Alabama community with a 150-year tradion of quilt-making. Their quilts are both artistically and political significant, rising to prominence during the Civil Rights Movement as symbols of Black empowerment and cultural pride. These works are deeply rooted in family, heritage and the history of their community.
Opening on June 13 is a solo exhibition by Sam Gilliam (1933–2022), one of the great innovators in post-war American painting, co-organised with the Sam Gilliam Foundation. Emerging in the mid-1960s, his canonical “Drape” paintings merged painting, sculpture, and performance in conversation with architecture in entirely new ways. Suspending unstretched lengths of painted canvas from the walls or ceilings of exhibition spaces, Gilliam transformed his medium and the contexts in which it was viewed. Following an influential artist residency in Ireland in Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Co. Mayo in the early 1990s, he continued his innovative exploration of sewn and collaged works, liberating canvases from traditional supports blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Gilliam’s work in Ireland fostered an intuitive dialogue with the surrounding environment, celebrating the physicality of painting and the emotional resonance of place through abstraction and materiality.
A solo exhibition by internationally renowned artist, poet, and activist Cecilia Vicuña titled Reverse Migration, a Poetic Journey, opens on 7 November. This groundbreaking presentation delves into themes of ancestry, ecological urgency, and the interconnectedness of humanity, inspired by Vicuña’s discovery of her ancient ties to Ireland and the poetic resonance of her return journey from the Andes to Ireland. The exhibition draws on her 2006 visit to Ireland, during which she and her partner, James O’Hern, honoured Ireland’s archaeological sites with rituals of gratitude. This connection becomes a narrative thread within the exhibition, intertwining personal memory, indigenous traditions, and a dialogue with Irish heritage. Vicuña, whose multidisciplinary practice bridges visual art, poetry, sound, and performance, will transform IMMA’s galleries with a dynamic suite of new works. Central to the exhibition is a site-specific quipu—an ancient Andean system of communication using knotted cords— created with local makers. The commission is a reference to the design of Aran sweater that is thought to be symbolic of nature, the sea and the lives of the fisherman and Islanders.
Other highlights in 2025 include Staying with the Trouble, an exhibition opening on 2 May of over 40 Irish and Ireland-based artists whose diverse practices explore urgent themes of our time. Staying with the Trouble is inspired by author and philosopher Donna Haraway’s germinal work of the same name. The exhibition challenges human-centric narratives, advocating for a multi-species/multi-kin perspective through sculpture, film, painting, installation and performance.
EARTH RISING returns to IMMA in 2025 as a vibrant festival of art, ecology, and ideas. Running from 12 to 14 September the festival will spark transformative climate conversations and actions through immersive cultural experiences. This year’s theme, “Making Kin,” invites audiences to explore meaningful connections—with each other, the natural world, and the urgent challenges of our time. Expect thought-provoking installations, interactive workshops, and inspiring voices that merge creativity with climate action, offering fresh perspectives and a space for collective imagination.
For further details on IMMA’s 2025 programme please visit imma.ie.
