Open Studios with Five Lamps Arts Festival

We’re delighted to take part in the Five Lamps Arts Festival programme this April. FSAS Resident Artists Samir Mahmood and Mieke Vanmechelen will host Open Studios from 12-4pm on Friday, 12 April.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to explore their workshop facilities which year-round support artists and the making of artworks exhibited in Dublin, nationally, and internationally. Join us for bespoke tours of the studios and facilities, including a sneak peek of work being created in the sculpture workshop area. Workshop tours will take place at 1pm and 3pm.

The Open Studios are free to attend but pre-booking is required. Event info at fivelampsarts.ie.

Main image: Samir Mahmood, Triptych Temptation I, 2022, image transfer and acrylic on wood.

Fire Station Artists’ Studios (FSAS) invite the public for an Open Studios afternoon to explore residential studios and meet with artists living and working in the repurposed fire station. Join us from 12 pm to 4 pm to meet the artists, discover where they work and find out more about their practice.

About the Artists:

Samir’s work explores experiences of identity, migration, and spirituality. He uses the queer body to consider human vulnerability and assess its connection to the world as an attempt to offer a liberating new reality. He blends religious references in his work which hint at the experience of migration and the necessity to come to terms with new, old, and similar ideas and qualities represented in different cultures. Samir’s first solo exhibition Of Other, and Possibility, (2023), was held in Dublin and curated by Rachel Botha. Recent awards include Visual Arts Bursary Award (2022) and The Next Generation Artists’ Award (2023) by The Arts Council, Ireland.

Mieke Vanmechelen is a Belgian/Irish artist currently resident at Fire Station Artists’ Studios. She explores connections between living beings and their environment through film, photography, and drawing. Her work has been exhibited in venues such as The Glucksman Gallery, the RSA Edinburgh, Highlanes Gallery, and Solas Nua in Washington DC.

Vanmechelen co-directed an Arts Council funded film called ‘Hungry Hill’ which premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh in August 2023, and later screened at IFI Documentary Festival, as well as film festivals in Paris and Chicago. Her research trip to the Isle of Eigg in The Hebrides in 2024 allowed her to explore possible alternative ways of living, enriching her ongoing research into urban anthropology. This work is supported by a Dublin City Council Art Bursary award.