Dublin Gallery Weekend Turns Its Focus to Local Collectors

The dust has settled after the fourth edition of Dublin Gallery Weekend (DGW), which wrapped up last weekend. Darragh Hogan, director at Kerlin Gallery, tells The Art Journal that he welcomed around 1,000 visitors on its opening day alone.

For a commercial gallery in a relatively small art market, that is a strong turnout. And according to Hogan, the annual event is starting to deliver something else: sales.

“It injects enthusiasm. Initially when we started this, the hope was that that enthusiasm would be reflected in purchasing, and it has been,” he says.

Launched in 2023, DGW grew out of a collective effort by the city’s commercial galleries to strengthen their position in Ireland’s cultural landscape. Organised by the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA), its 2026 four-day edition brought together 20 galleries and cultural institutions, with more than 70 events spanning exhibitions, talks, screenings and performances. Works by around 140 artists were on show.

This year’s programme, held from 5 to 8 November, included new landscape paintings by Elizabeth Magill at Kerlin, Damien Flood’s Veil at Green On Red and Sonia Shiel’s The Nature of Tables at Kevin Kavanagh. A major addition was the inaugural Francis Bacon Awards for Irish Visual Arts, which awarded €40,000 between artists Patrick Graham and Cathy Wilkes.

A Shared Platform for Dublin’s Galleries

Gallery weekends have become fixtures of the international art calendar, with established editions in cities including London and Berlin. But Hogan believes the Dublin event serves a particularly important purpose.

“One of the differences between London Gallery Weekend and DGW is that London already has this incredible infrastructure in place,” he says. “It has a critical mass of art-going public and audiences that support the gallery system.”

He says that in Ireland, galleries have historically operated much more independently. The disruption of the pandemic prompted a change in attitude, with commercial dealers recognising the advantages of working together. CAGA was subsequently established, and DGW was born.

Installation view, The Model, Sligo, (2026) by Cathy Wilkes Photo: Tom Flanagan, courtesy of The Artist and The Modern Institute/ Toby Webster Ltd., Glasgow

“There is a benefit to us all working together,” Hogan adds. “The interesting thing about DGW and the commercial galleries is that our programmes differ greatly, to be honest, but the one thing we have in common is our public. It’s more or less the same audience.”

In a compact city with a relatively small collector base, the same visitors often move between galleries. Rather than competing exclusively for their attention, DGW encourages people to explore the full range of exhibitions taking place across Dublin.

“It’s making sure that everyone understands that they’re welcome across the board in all galleries and introducing them to the wider range of voices in terms of visual arts,” he says.

That collaborative approach has also helped create an atmosphere quite different from the pressure-cooker environment of major international art fairs. Without the considerable expense of shipping works, building booths and transporting staff abroad, participating galleries face a more modest financial risk.

“There’s a different atmosphere, and I think it’s because the risk that the galleries take is more modest financially,” Hogan adds. “There’s less at stake, and I think that affords us an opportunity to be a little bit more relaxed.”

Making Art Collecting More Accessible

The weekend also gives galleries an opportunity to introduce art collecting to people who might previously have considered it financially out of reach.

This year, participating galleries committed to offering artworks priced at €500 or less. At Kerlin, French artist Nathalie Du Pasquier created two limited editions at that price.

“We want to encourage people who have less disposable income to get involved in acquiring work,” Hogan says.

He believes the initiative reflects the commitment of galleries across the city, regardless of their size: “Everybody, regardless of their size, has seen the potential for it to be a benefit.”

Building Visibility and a Collector Base

Another challenge DGW is attempting to address is the comparatively limited visibility of Irish visual art, both domestically and internationally. Ireland has long enjoyed a reputation for literature, theatre and music. Its contemporary artists, Hogan argues, have received considerably less attention.

“We’re also creating a huge amount of visual art, and have done for many, many years, but it goes under the radar because we have let it go under the radar here in Ireland ourselves.”

He’s particularly critical of the country’s mainstream media, arguing that visual art receives disproportionately little coverage compared with other cultural disciplines: “The national television and radio stations and mainstream media could do a lot more to cover the visual arts in Ireland.”

DGW is trying to change that: “It’s our attempt to put that back into the consciousness of people and try and make it part of their habits moving forward.”

Patrick Graham 'Self-Portrait' (2025). Photo: Courtesy of the Francis Bacon Awards

The city’s commercial galleries also face the challenge of developing a sustainable collector base. Ireland’s growing technology sector has brought new wealth and international businesses to Dublin, although the direct impact on corporate art collecting has been limited.

What is more encouraging, he believes, has been the involvement of property developers and landlords responsible for building the offices occupied by those companies. He singled out property company IPUT, an early supporter of DGW, for its involvement in acquiring artworks, providing studio spaces and supporting Irish visual art.

Meanwhile, the influx of younger professionals working in technology and other industries has helped create a potential new audience for galleries, including people able to spend several hundred euros on their first artwork.

Hogan also points to Ireland’s architects, who have historically played an important role in introducing clients to contemporary art, and to an emerging art advisory sector.

Local Roots, International Ambitions

Still, the domestic market has its limitations. For Kerlin, whose artists have international ambitions, maintaining a presence overseas remains essential. I bumped into Hogan in October at Post-Fair in Paris, where Kerlin was showing work by Irish sculptor Siobhán Hapaska.

“We have always been led by the artists that we are lucky and fortunate to work with, and they all, for the most part, have an aspiration to have an international career, and that places us with the obligation to go international,” Hogan says.

That international activity comes with considerable costs, and its commercial value can be difficult to measure. A meeting at an art fair might lead to a sale several years later, making immediate returns an unreliable measure of success.

“Things can happen in a given year that are the result of a meeting that took place three years prior,” he adds.

DGW offers galleries the opportunity to develop relationships with collectors and audiences on their own doorstep, while collectively drawing greater attention to the city’s artists.

Four editions in, the weekend’s importance is becoming increasingly clear. It has created a shared platform for galleries that once operated largely independently, encouraged new audiences to explore commercial spaces and, according to Hogan, begun to turn that enthusiasm into sales.