The Naughton Gallery

The Naughton Gallery The Naughton Gallery is located at the heart of Queen's University. More details at http://www.naughtongallery.org/silversounds/

Since 2001, The Gallery has become one of Belfast’s most sought after and exciting visual arts platforms, featuring a rolling programme of works from the University’s own collection, touring exhibitions and shows by local and international artists. The Naughton Gallery is a registered museum and is named after its benefactors Martin and Carmel Naughton. The Naughton Gallery presents up to eight ex

hibitions per year and also co-ordinates commissions of new art works for Queen’s University. The University’s extensive art collection comprises gifts, bequests and purchases since the foundation of Queen’s College in 1845. The wide range of works includes paintings, prints, works on paper, sculpture, furniture, metalwork and silver. The collection is on display throughout the University with an impressive hang of over forty portraits in the Great Hall. On semi-permanent display is Silver Sounds, our new interactive display of the Queen's silver collection, winner of the Times Higher Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts 2008.

Visit NO HOCUS POCUS, JUST FOCUS to see a selection of sports-themed artworks by an international range of contemporary ...
28/08/2026

Visit NO HOCUS POCUS, JUST FOCUS to see a selection of sports-themed artworks by an international range of contemporary artists.

Today we’re taking a closer look at the work of Sheena Rose (b. Barbados, 1985), a multidisciplinary visual artist working across painting, drawing, performance, new media, public art, and mixed media. A Fulbright Scholar, she holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Rose has exhibited internationally through biennials, museum and gallery exhibitions, art fairs, residencies, festivals, and public and private collections. Her work has also been widely featured in international media and cultural projects.

Through her company, Sheena Rose Inc., she develops large-scale public art and design projects and has received several honours for her contributions to art and culture, including the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Art in 2020. In 2022, she was recognised by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley for her cultural contributions, and in 2026 received the Anthony N. Sabga Awards for Caribbean Excellence in Arts & Letters.

Sheena Rose

Mark your cosmic calendars and/or cave walls…PLANET X is hurtling towards the Naughton Gallery this September!UsFolk is ...
28/08/2026

Mark your cosmic calendars and/or cave walls…PLANET X is hurtling towards the Naughton Gallery this September!

UsFolk is turning 10 years old, and to celebrate one whole decade of championing illustration, telling stories, and imagining worlds, we are taking you with us on a galactic odyssey forwards and backwards through space and time. Expect spacemen, cavemen, and omens for the future as prophesied in pencil and ink by UsFolk’s illustrators!

As UsFolk marks this milestone anniversary, PLANET X asks the simple yet profound questions: What does tomorrow look like today? And where
will the future take us?

Launching Thursday 10th September, 6–8pm. All welcome. Free admission.

Artwork: Jacky Sheridan

Miaow! 🎸😻🎶September’s SCREEN/PRINT is “the best movie ever” (according to our curator and the film itself).More details ...
26/08/2026

Miaow! 🎸😻🎶

September’s SCREEN/PRINT is “the best movie ever” (according to our curator and the film itself).

More details coming soon… 👀

Something big is taking shape. 👀Mural artist and illustrator ZIPPY is transforming this HUGE historic blast wall as part...
26/08/2026

Something big is taking shape. 👀

Mural artist and illustrator ZIPPY is transforming this HUGE historic blast wall as part of Weavers’ Hall, the University’s newest student accommodation in the heart of Belfast.

We can’t wait to see this mural come to life! Watch this space…

“In a trail of blue smoke, with my heart broke, said good-bye to you…”Our followers will know that we are huge Dolly Par...
25/08/2026

“In a trail of blue smoke, with my heart broke, said good-bye to you…”

Our followers will know that we are huge Dolly Parton fans here at the Naughton Gallery, and we are deeply saddened to hear the news of her death.

Dolly was the inspiration behind our 2022 exhibition, BLUE SMOKE. Taking Parton’s music as its starting point, the exhibition showcased the work of four contemporary artists – Hannah Casey-Brogan, Faith Couch, Aidan Koch, and P**t Mendes – who explored the idea of landscape and home within their work, although often in unexpected or unconventional ways.

Alongside the exhibition, the DOLLY ON SCREEN film programme at QFT celebrated just some of her iconic film roles, with a specially-commissioned poster by illustrator Laura Callaghan.

Rest in peace, Dolly. We will always love you.

“And in the tall grass I would lie / ‘Til ev’ning shadows brought the night / Through the window of my room / I’d hear the whippoorwill’s sad call.”

Queen's Film Theatre Faith couch Aidan Koch P**t Mendes Laura Callaghan

Today’s SPORTS VIII artist spotlight is on Younguk Yi (Younguk Yi).Based in Seoul, Yi’s paintings explore repetition, di...
24/08/2026

Today’s SPORTS VIII artist spotlight is on Younguk Yi (Younguk Yi).

Based in Seoul, Yi’s paintings explore repetition, distortion, and the strange possibilities of the human form. Bodies double, merge, and stack; eyes align like windows; flesh becomes framework.

Using airbrushed gradients and meticulous hand-drawing, Yi creates figures that feel almost digital – precise, uncanny, and subtly unstable.

Discover Younguk Yi’s work in NO HOCUS POCUS, JUST FOCUS, on display until 06 September.

Special thanks to WWNN

🎻 That’s a wrap on GIVE US A TUNE! / CAS DÚINN PORT! 🎶Presented as part of the University’s Fleadh at Queen’s programme,...
24/08/2026

🎻 That’s a wrap on GIVE US A TUNE! / CAS DÚINN PORT! 🎶

Presented as part of the University’s Fleadh at Queen’s programme, our outdoor exhibition celebrated the people, places, and sounds of Irish traditional music.

Huge thanks to graphic designer Alex Synge (), illustrator Fiona McDonnell (Fiona McDonnell), and everyone who stopped by to take a look!

💚💚💚

Photographs: Jan McCullough

Each of our sports exhibitions highlights a significant shoe design from sports history. This year, we’re putting the sp...
20/08/2026

Each of our sports exhibitions highlights a significant shoe design from sports history. This year, we’re putting the spotlight on the iconic Nike Moon Shoe.

Before Nike was even called Nike, Bill Bowerman created the company’s first running shoe in 1972, famously experimenting with his wife’s waffle iron to develop a lightweight sole that could give runners better traction without adding extra weight. Designed for athletes competing in the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials, the shoe became one of the earliest Nike running models and helped establish the young company’s identity in performance footwear. Only about 12 pairs of the handmade “Waffle Racing Flat Moon Shoes” are believed to have been produced, making them extraordinarily rare.

In 2019, an unworn pair sold at auction for over $437,000 USD, briefly becoming the most expensive sneakers ever sold at the time. The shoe is considered a landmark in sneaker history because it introduced Nike’s iconic waffle sole technology and marked the beginning of the brand’s rise in global sports culture. The 2026 rerelease on display brings the original design back into the limelight. The nylon upper, complete with leather accents and Swoosh logos, pairs with a waffle sole to recreate the ‘70s runner style.

Mel Carroll (Melvin Carroll) has knocked it out of the park with our latest SCREEN/PRINT poster for Trainspotting, scree...
19/08/2026

Mel Carroll (Melvin Carroll) has knocked it out of the park with our latest SCREEN/PRINT poster for Trainspotting, screening as part of QFT’s Rip It Up season. 💥

A jolt of adrenaline to the heart of 1990s British cinema, Danny Boyle’s darkly funny adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel was a major breakthrough – and remains one of the decade’s defining films. Now, 30 years on, Trainspotting is back on the big screen in a stunning 4K restoration.

With live-wire energy and visual verve, the film follows Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor) and his misfit mates as they get high, get into trouble, get clean, and get high again, all while attempting to outrun the banality of modern existence.

Kinetically cut to an iconic soundtrack featuring Iggy Pop, Underworld, Primal Scream, New Order, and more, Trainspotting is an indie phenomenon that chooses life in all its ugly, beautiful, terrifying exhilaration.

Friday 21 August, 8.45pm. Attendees will receive a FREE SCREEN/PRINT poster by Belfast-based illustrator Mel Carroll. Tickets on sale now from Queen's Film Theatre

Rip It Up is a UK-wide season supported by BFI National Lottery funding, exploring and celebrating the changing face of youth rebellion, culture, and expression on screen in the UK.

Today’s SPORTS VIII artist spotlight is on Colin J. Radcliffe (Colin J Radcliffe). Born in New York in 1994, Radcliffe i...
18/08/2026

Today’s SPORTS VIII artist spotlight is on Colin J. Radcliffe (Colin J Radcliffe).

Born in New York in 1994, Radcliffe is a ceramic sculptor whose work brings q***r history, pop culture, and personal memory together in intimate, humorous, and provocative forms. His sculptures explore desire, nostalgia, and vulnerability, often blurring the boundaries between sport, performance, intimacy, and innuendo.

In HARDER BABY, boxing gloves emblazoned with the titular phrase play on the overlap between athletic and sexual language, exposing the tensions between masculinity, aggression, desire, and q***r intimacy.

Radcliffe’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Brooklyn Museum, Palais de Tokyo, and Maison Jean Paul Gaultier in Paris. His first monograph, To Feel These Things, was published in 2023. He previously featured work on our 2025 exhibition, THE BIG NEIGHBOURHOOD (also pictured).

Visit the exhibition daily, 11am–4pm, until Sunday 06 September.

Address

1st Floor, Lanyon Building, Queen's University
Belfast
BT71NN

Opening Hours

Tuesday 11am - 4pm
Wednesday 11am - 4pm
Thursday 11am - 4pm
Friday 11am - 4pm
Saturday 11am - 4pm
Sunday 11am - 4pm

Telephone

+44 (0) 28 9097 3580

Website

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