The Curatorial Department at the National Gallery of Ireland researches and exhibits our national collection. Our curators are collection specialists within their specific area of expertise and their research interests encompass a large range of subjects. Through their research they are dedicated to interpreting and presenting our collection to all.
Curators
Dr Aoife Brady, Curator of Italian and Spanish Art
Aoife is responsible for the display and interpretation of the Gallery’s Spanish and Italian collections. A specialist in Bolognese painting, Aoife received a doctorate in the History of Art from Trinity College Dublin, and has previously worked at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, and the National Gallery, London. Aoife’s projects have included an exhibition of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s series of paintings depicting the parable of the Prodigal Son, in collaboration with the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and the Meadows Museum, Dallas, and an in-focus display of sixteenth-century Florentine paintings representing the Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist. More recently, she curated a monographic exhibition examining the life and work of Lavinia Fontana (2023).
Katie Buckley, Curatorial Fellow (Prints & Drawings), 2023-2024
Katie was appointed in 2023 to work with the Prints and Drawings collection. She conducts research, catalogues new acquisitions, assists researchers and supports the organisation of exhibitions. Her research interests include 20th-century Irish art, in particular stained glass, and contemporary Irish art. Katie holds a BA in Art History and History from University College Dublin and an MA in Art History, Collections and Curating from University College Dublin.
Anne Hodge, Curator of Prints & Drawings
Anne is responsible for the acquisition, interpretation and display of the works on paper collection. Her research interests include printmaking, photography, landscape drawing and topography, and sustainability within museums. She has published in both books, periodicals and exhibition catalogues, and curated or co-curated a wide variety of exhibitions, among them The Works of J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland (2017), Frederic William Burton: For the Love of Art (2017), Good Morning Mister Turner: Niall Naessens and J.M.W. Turner (2018), Making their Mark: Irish Painter-Etchers 1880-1930 (2019), and Dutch Drawings: Highlights from the Rijksmuseum (2022).
Dr Lizzie Marx, Curator of Dutch & Flemish Art
Lizzie is responsible for the interpretation, acquisition, and display of Dutch and Flemish art, and for the development of exhibitions relating to the art of the Low Countries. Lizzie received her PhD from the University of Cambridge. She has held a Fellowship at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and has worked on various exhibition projects at the Mauritshuis, The Hague, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and the University Library, Cambridge. At the National Gallery of Ireland, Lizzie has co-curated St Dymphna: The Tragegy of an Irish Princess (2023) and Turning Heads: Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer (2024) and is curator of Vermeer Visits (2024).
Janet McLean, Curator of Modern Art
Janet is responsible for the acquisition, interpretation, and display of modern paintings and sculpture. Exhibitions curated and co-curated include Impressionist Interiors (2008), Lines of Vision: Irish Writers on Art (2014), Mondrian (2020), and Giacometti. From Life (2022). In 2014 she edited Lines of Vision: Irish Writers on Art (Thames and Hudson); a collection of poems, stories, and essays by 52 writers relating to artworks in the National Gallery of Ireland collection.
Dara McElligott, John Barry Brown & Petronella Brown Curatorial Fellow, 2022-2024
Appointed Curatorial Fellow in 2022, Dara works with the Irish art collection, organising exhibitions and conducting research. In 2023, she co-curated the exhibition It Took A Century: Women Artists and the RHA, and in 2022 and 2023, co-curated the annual Portrait Prize. Prior to joining the curatorial team, Dara worked as Education Graduate Intern and Tour Guide at the Gallery. She holds a BA in History of Art and Architecture and French from Trinity College Dublin and a MLitt in Museum Studies from the University of St Andrews. She previously worked as curatorial intern at The Frick Collection, New York.
Niamh MacNally, Curator of the Prints & Drawings Study Room
Niamh’s role includes providing access to the Gallery's collection of works on paper and contributing to the exhibition programme. She edited the Essential Guide (2016), contributed to The Works of J.M.W. Turner at the National Gallery of Ireland (2023), and has curated many exhibitions, among them Margaret Clarke – An Independent Spirit (2017), Curious Creatures - Frans Post and Brazil (2018), Bauhaus 100 - The Print Portfolios (2019), Estella Solomons - Still Moments (2022), and Turner - The Sun is God (2022). She has curated the Gallery’s annual Turner exhibition several times, and co-curated the Gallery’s annual Portrait Prize. Niamh’s areas of interest include women artists, 20th-century Irish art, and modern and contemporary prints.
Dr Brendan Rooney, Head Curator and Curator of Irish Art
Brendan is Head Curator, and curator of the Gallery’s Irish paintings, sculpture and stained glass, which comprise almost half of the gallery’s collection (excluding works on paper), and date from the mid-seventeenth century to the present day. He is also responsible for the National Portrait Collection, which has existed as a subsection of the national collection since the late nineteenth century. He has published extensively on Irish art, and curated or co-curated a wide range of exhibitions at the Gallery, including A Time and Place. Two Centuries of Irish Social Life (2006), Thomas Roberts 1748-1777 (2009), Creating History. Stories of Ireland in Art (2016), Roderic O’Conor and the Moderns (2018), Jack B. Yeats: Painting and Memory (2022), and Lavery. On Location (2023).
