Ciarán Walsh (b. Ireland, 1980) is an artist, curator and cultural manager based in Berlin, Germany. His artistic work explores place, memory, and transformation, commonly utilising the spectral as a tool of exploration.
Walsh has shown his work at numerous galleries and art spaces internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, including Kunsthalle Bratislava, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, MuHKA in Antwerp, Project Art Space in Dublin, VISUAL - National Centre for Contemporary Art in Carlow, and Ujazdowski Castle CCA in Warsaw. He produced two artists’ novellas Vortices and The Sickness, utilising sci-fi and pulp fiction modes to generate textual book artworks. Most recently he completed a documentary-style film work, Here is Some Place Else, exploring the actos of memory around a disappeared village in eastern Germany.
Additional to his studio practice he has undertaken curatorial, archival and editorial work on diverse visual arts and cultural projects, among them The Reading Room a project focusing on the publication-based artworks, with manifestations in Berlin, Birmingham, Dublin and Paris, and the public arts projects Hedgeschool and Sweet Futures. As a cultural manager, he was part of the core team that delivered Zeitgiest Irland 24, a year-long programme of contemporary Irish arts in Germany in 2024.
Solo Exhibitions, Screenings & Performances
Between a tenth and a fifteenth, Studio Beta, Berlin, Germany, 2021
Beyond Other Voices, Galway Arts Centre, Ireland, 2014
The Ghost of an Image, insitu (web radio broadcast), Berlin, Germany, 2014
The Ghost of an Image, The Drawing Room, Dublin, Ireland, 2014
They Echo in the Sublime Stillness of Infinity, Light & Wire (digital platform), Los Angeles, USA, 2013
It's Just a Shadow Away, Stedefreude, Berlin, Germany, 2012
It's Just a Shadow Away, GlogauAIR, Berlin, Germany, 2012
this brief visual pattern, Pallas Projects, Dublin, Ireland, 2011
Conduit and Iris Stream, VISUAL – Nation Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland, 2009
Samizdat, Unit H, Dublin, Ireland, 2008
Archipelago & Other Stories Four Gallery, Dublin, Ireland, 2006
Group Exhibitions & Events (Selected)
Irish Energy, Die Möglichkeit Einer Insel, Berlin, Germany, 2024
It’s Hard Being a Character in Somebody Else’s Novel, Kreig?, Hasselt, Belgium, 2023*
Reading Artist’s Books, HGB Leipzig, Germany, 2022
La Historia Comienza Aqui, La Madraza, Granada, Spain, 2022*
Caretaking 2020-21, The Watch, Berlin, Germany, 2021
Ulysses Expanded, Embassy of Ireland (digital platform), Berlin, Germany, 2021
Editorial Thinking, Index, Stockholm, Sweden, 2021*
Sea Change, dlr lexicon, Dublin, Ireland, 2018
Montage ou la Bibliothèque à Venir, Frac france-comté, Besançon, France, 2018*
Into the Mu, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Slovakia, 2017
The House That Heals the Soul, CCA Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, 2017*
Artists' Novels Collection, Ujazdowski Castle CCA, Warsaw, Poland, 2017*
Faraway Longings, Embassy of Ireland, Berlin, Germany, 2016
How Far is Here, MAGO, Eidsvoll, Norway, 2015
Felt and Fa(c)t – difference to other, Laois Arthouse, Stradbally, Ireland, 2014
The Line of Beauty, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland, 2013
False Optimism, Crawford City Gallery, Cork, Ireland, 2013
p.s., João Cocteau, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Letters from the Field, Atelierhof Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Instantaneous Personal Magnetism, Galway Arts Centre, Galway, Ireland, 2010
Surface & Reality, Arts Week programme, Kilkenny, Ireland, 2010
Aion Experiments, Project Arts, Dublin, Ireland, 2010
The Bridge, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland, 2008
Menschheit, Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, Ireland, 2008
Hinterlands: Liam Campell and Ciarán Walsh, Broadstone XL, Dublin, Ireland, 2007
Conspirators of Pleasure, La Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland, 2006
Imagined – Visions of Architecture, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland, 2006
Flagged, Visualise public sculpture programme, Carlow, Ireland, 2005
Elsewhere from Here, Workroom, Dublin, Ireland, 2003
Haunted, City Arts Centre, Dublin, 2003
Curatorial, Archival & Editorial Work
Irish Energy, exhibition with various invted artisits, Die Möglichkeit einer Insel, Berlin, 2024**
The Reading Room, library, exhibitions and events, various invited artists & writers, Flutgraben Berlin, Grand Union Birmingham and diverse temporary sites, 2010-12***
Travelogue Art Zine, edited publication series, various invited artists & writers, Berlin, 2008-10
Sweet Futures, public art commission, invited artist Sarah Browne, Carlow, 2007
Hedge School, public art commision, invited artist Glenn Loughran, Carlow, 2006
Forgotten Zine Library, archive, library, exhibitions & events, Dublin, 2004-2007
Residencies & Research Placements
The Watch, Flutgraben e.V., Berlin, Germany, 2021
Kolleg IX, Bauhaus Dessau Foundation, Germany, 2007
Exercises in Folkatronika, The Scultptors’ Society of Ireland, 2003
Collections
The Book Lovers collection at MuHKA, Antwerp, Belgium (and touring)
Various private collections
Awarding & Funding Bodies
Stiftung Kunstfonds
The Arts Council of Ireland
Berufsverband Bildender Künstler*innen Berlin
The Sculptors’ Society of Ireland
Visualise Programme Carlow
Carlow County Council
Percent-for-Art Scheme, Ireland
Goethe Institut Irland
*work exhibited as part of The Book Lovers collection**initial co-curatorial work; final exhibition curated solely by Sheena Malone
***co-curated with Dominique Hurth
Text and images © Ciarán Walsh, 2003-2025, except where otherwise credited. Additional artwork texts by Jonathan Ferguson (J.F.). Artist portrait photo by Neil Hoare.
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