ISABEL NOLAN

Early Life

Born in 1974, in Dublin, Ireland, Nolan grew up in a home that prioritised education and, in particular, reading, encouraging Nolan to think critically.

Nolan studied art at Dublin’s National College of Art and Design (1995). She worked on the tech crew at Irish Museum of Modern Art, before completing an MLitt at University College Dublin (2001) and an MA at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (2006).

Isabel Nolan Artworks

Informed by literary, cosmological, and historical perspectives, Nolan’s works span visual and textual media and are united in their inquiry into the human condition and its unknowns.

Early Exhibitions

In 1998, Nolan held her first exhibition at Proposition Gallery in Belfast. I keep dreaming that I’m a fictional character, featuring a large group of paintings. Nolan secured her first studio in 2003, followed by an Arts Council bursary that enabled her to set aside other jobs for art.

In 2005, Nolan held her first major exhibition at Dublin’s Project Arts Centre, Everything I said let me explain. On view was Quiet Please (2005), a short, animated film speaking to the difficulties of attributing meaning to existence, alongside works on paper. Quiet Please later featured in the Irish Pavilion’s six-artist presentation at that year’s Venice Biennale.

IMMA - The weakened eye of day (2014)

In 2014, Nolan opened a solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. The weakened eye of day looked at how light can manifest as a metaphor for life, death, or the pursuit of truth. To create the works on view, including text, sculpture, drawings and textiles, Nolan drew from myriad disciplines, from literature to cosmology and humoral theory, or medical diagrams detailing the human body’s functions used by physicians in ancient Rome and Greece.

Irish Pavilion - 61st Venice Biennale

In 2026, Nolan represents Ireland in Venice in a solo presentation curated by Georgina Jackson and The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art. Her presentation, Dreamshook, brings together different elements, including large hand‑tufted tapestries, drawings, and other sculptural objects to form an immersive environment. The tapestries carry recurring images—arches, collapsing structures, fragmented interiors, unstable horizons—that read almost like scenes from half‑remembered dreams. The sculptural works that punctuate the space, echo forms that appear in the textiles and drawings, so that motifs seem to shift from flat image into three dimensions. Across these different media, Nolan stages a loose narrative of aftermath and renewal, inviting viewers to piece together their own sense of storyline from overlapping images, fragments of language and the physical experience of the rooms themselves. Her work will return to Ireland on a national tour supported by the Arts Council in 2027.

Exhibitions

Isabel Nolan had exhibited widely around the world. Selected solo exhibitions include Irish Pavilion, 61st Venice Biennale (2026); Château La Coste, France (2023); Void, Derry, Northern Ireland (2022); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2021, 2015, 2009, 2007); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2014); and Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2014).

Select group exhibitions include: 13th Liverpool Biennial, U.K. (2025); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2024, 2021); Tramway, Glasgow, travelling to Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter (2019); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2013); Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (2010); and Irish Pavilion, 51st Venice Biennale (2005).

Publications

Isabel Nolan has published a number of books, including A delicate bond which is also a gap (2024) and Intimately Unrelated (2011). Noland has also been the subject of articles in publications such as ArtReview, Artforum, and Artnet.

Isabel Nolan FAQs

Ocula | 2026