The owner and curator of the Doorway Gallery on Dublin’s South Frederick Street, Denise Donnelly has an eye for beautiful things. Exhibiting fine art paintings and other works from a selection of both Irish-born and international artists, she’s deeply inspired by the pieces she showcases and loves watching artists in flow.
The last thing I saw and loved… Women Impressionists at the National Gallery. There is far more to the story of women in Impressionism than muses, models or mothers.
The book I keep coming back to… The A-Z of Art: The World’s Greatest and Most Popular Artists and Their Works by Nicola Hodge and Libby Anson. The book provides a comprehensive guide to 386 of the world’s best-known artists, from medieval times to the present day. Artists are listed in alphabetical order. Each section contains a full-colour illustration of one of each artist’s most interesting works, with interesting informative text, biographical details and statistics. The book presents an international look at the visual arts and gives an insight into the mixture of styles, media and movements that make up the diversity of the world of art. Each spread reflects artistic variety, with Renaissance masterpieces next to neo-classicism, and Romantic pieces alongside contemporary works. Among the great names offered are Botticelli, Hockney, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Picasso, Titian, Van Gogh and Warhol.
I find inspiration in… walking through art studios and artist residencies. Seeing artists in the midst of their creative process always sparks new ideas for potential exhibitions and curatorial themes.
My favourite film is… I love all sorts of movies but I recently watched Poor Things and I found this so intriguing and fantastic to watch.
My career highlight is… curating the Elephant in the Room movement with my artists and showcasing the elephants at Nutgrove shopping centre. This has been such an amazing movement and it was so wonderful to be part of this.
The song I listen to to get in the zone is… “The Child in Us” by Enigma. The song is powerful and full of emotion yet I find it very relaxing. I enjoy listening to it for what feels like a form of meditation. It gives me balance.
I never leave the house without… my phone! I hate to be so dependent on anything, but my phone is my portable gallery. Every day I spend time chatting to my artists and clients, looking for feedback or making enquiries. I absolutely rely on it for Google Maps when making deliveries to client houses. I can tend to get lost easily without maps!
The best advice I’ve ever gotten… “Let the art speak for itself.” Sometimes, as curators, we can over-intellectualize or explain too much, but it’s essential to leave room for the viewer to have their own experience with the work.
The art that means the most to me is… a book called The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. It’s not about art per se, but it’s influenced how I think about space, memory, and the role of physical environments in shaping the viewer’s experience of art.
The most challenging thing about working in the arts is… balancing the demands of logistics and the creative vision. There’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work in curating, from coordinating with artists and galleries to managing budgets and schedules.
The magic of art to me is… its ability to challenge perceptions and provoke new ways of thinking. As a curator, I see art as a way to create dialogues between artists, audiences, and society as a whole. It’s endlessly transformative.
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