In celebration of Bernadette Kiely’s new book spanning a decade of exhibitions, and of a selection of her drawings recently acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland, Taylor Galleries is delighted to present the launch of Bernadette Kiely: we look at the world once… selected works and words 2015–2025, alongside a large selection of her drawings and canvases from 1996–2026.
“This beautiful book is an important cultural document. It captures a particular socio-ecological moment within our enfolding climate crisis, a time that will, inevitably, be examined retrospectively. There is something deeply fitting in the fact that the book has been realized through a local, embodied effort, printed locally, rooted in place, yet expansive in its implications.”
— Dr. Ciara Healy, Head of Fine Art and Education at Limerick School of Art and Design (LSAD, TUS)
We look at the world once… selected works and words 2015–2025 is a 150-page fully illustrated book designed by Peter Maybury (MA)—artist, graphic designer, educator and musician—and published by Bernadette Kiely Studio and Taylor Galleries. It features documentation of exhibitions including the acclaimed Don’t Need No Country, Don’t Fly No Flag (Galway International Arts Festival 2024) and Ashes and Rain at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny (2025), which was shortlisted for the inaugural AICA (International Association of Art Critics) Prize (2026). The book includes a foreword by curator Eamonn Maxwell and texts by Cornelius Browne, Dr. Fionna Barber, Lisa Fingleton, Shannon Maria Carroll, Cristín Leach, Dr. Ciara Healy, Aidan Dunne, Maria Connolly Maxwell, Dr. Yvonne Scott, Sabina Mac Mahon and Sean Lynch.
Signed copies of the book will be on sale throughout the evening.
The exhibition will consist of approximately 80 drawings spanning three decades. From small pencil, charcoal and watercolour works on paper, to drawings based on images from 500 million years ago (2000) made in North Mayo; from landscapes and seascapes made at the Waterford coast (1996) and on remote islands in Co. Donegal (2004–2024), to pencil and water-based drawings of vernacular gates and riverlands, and monotypes based on Ordnance Survey maps of flooding in Co. Kilkenny, Bernadette’s vision spans across deep time to the present day. Immersed in environmental and climate crises throughout her life, her drawings reflect an empathic practice focused on the fragility of human life and the instability of the vast universe we inhabit.
The exhibition will include the screening as water flows… (12-minute film) by Amelia Caulfield, originally commissioned by the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, for Bernadette Kiely’s exhibition Ashes + Rain (2025).
“We look at the world once, in childhood… the rest is memory.”
—from Nostos by Louise Glück, Meadowlands (1996)