Boy Dancer

Annemarie Ní Chuireann and Niamh McCann

Sat 11 April – Sat 6 June 2026 

Boy Dancer is a new exhibition emerging from the first collaboration between poet Annemarie Ní Chuireann and visual artist Niamh McCann. Solstice commissioned the poem by Ní Chuireann, and the Boy Dancer exhibition weaves together Ní Chuireann’s text, with image, and installation by McCann, exploring themes of memory and loss. 

Boy Dancer acts as a textual wake in response to the loss of Ní Chuireann’s stepbrother. Her poetic practice interlaces Irish language, mythology, and folklore with personal narrative and symbolic fauna. McCann’s visual response embraces the lyrical qualities of the poem, drawing on imagery of birds and beasts as seers, omens, and witnesses - resounding McCann’s allegorical and personal collaborative practice. 

The exhibition includes drawings, wall paintings, and expanded conceptual works developed in response to Boy Dancer, offering a powerful meditation on grief and transformation. 

The starlings come, pushing
like an oar, pushing. Things happened.
Things that never should have happened.

 This is Solstice's second commissioned work with Annemarie Ní Chuireann, the first being The Foundling Crib, which was included in her debut publication The Poison Glen (Gallery Press). Solstice has previously worked with Niamh McCann on Just Left of Copernicus (2012) and Someone Decides Hawk or Dove (2023), the latter a recipient of the ART:2023 Decade of Centenaries Open Call Award, supported by the Arts Council and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

Gallery Information:
The gallery is located on level 3 in Solstice Arts Centre 
Opening times: Tuesday to Saturday / 11am - 4pm 
Admission to the gallery is free of charge 
Solstice Arts Centre is wheelchair accessible