GOMA Gallery of Modern Art Waterford

03/06/2026

29/05/2026

Joseph Heffernan’s work deals with constructed but ambiguous narratives which are often a rumination on the creative process and deals with themes of absurdity, alienation and identity.

These narratives rely upon familiar allusions and references but the specifics of the narrative are not readily clear and are left to the viewer to figure out. In this way, the images have a plurality of interpretations, and the viewer is an active producer of these interpretations rather than a passive consumer.
____________________________________

'𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

Curated by Aideen Quirke.

📸 Kate Bowe O'Brien

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 - 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺–𝟱𝗽𝗺 | 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 | 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲.

27/05/2026

Joseph Heffernan's current exhibition at GOMA Waterford imagines a speculative narrative dominated by a game referred to as ‘The Ceremony of the Flowers’.

While the rules of this game are only alluded to, they seem to be an abstract synthesis of poetry, mathematics and esoteric knowledge that envisage the world as an abstruse place full of elaborate rituals involving obscure signs and symbols.

It functions as an intercessor of sorts between the mundanity of the world and the quasi-divine. In the process, the work asks questions about belief and the things that we chose to put our faith in.
____________________________________

'𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

Curated by Aideen Quirke.

📸 Kate Bowe O'Brien

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 - 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺–𝟱𝗽𝗺 | 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 | 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲.

26/05/2026

Joseph Heffernan is an Irish artist working across painting, drawing, text and assemblage/installation. His practice is concerned with identity, rituals, performance and how memory is constructed.
__________________________________________________________

'𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

Curated by Aideen Quirke.

Image: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘤𝘵, oil on linen, 50 x 40cm, Joseph Heffernan 2025

📸 Kate Bowe O'Brien

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 - 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺–𝟱𝗽𝗺 | 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 | 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲.

26/05/2026

This Thursday, 28 May, 11.00–12.30am! Drop in for a tour of our current solo exhibition by Joseph Heffernan at GOMA.

Don't miss this audio-descriptive tour of ‘where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’, led by by the exhibition’s curator Aideen Quirke.

This tour takes place as part of the 2026 Bealtaine Festival, Ireland’s national festival celebrating the arts and ageing. Free and open to all.

Audio descriptive tours are designed to make art accessible to everyone. In this tour, Aideen will guide visitors through Joseph Heffernan's immersive solo exhibition with rich, detailed verbal descriptions of the works, bringing the visual world of the show into vivid focus for visitors who are blind, have low vision, or are experiencing difficulties with their vision.

As well as describing the works themselves, the tour will offer insight into their artistic and thematic significance, providing a deeper understanding of Heffernan’s layered and symbol-rich practice.

Aideen Quirke is independent curator and artist from Co Tipperary, based in Cork City.

‘𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

About Joseph Heffernan:

Joseph Heffernan is an Irish artist based in Backwater Artist Studios, Cork. Working across painting, drawing, text and assemblage/installation his practice is concerned with identity, rituals, performance and how memory is constructed.

His current body of work – presented in ‘where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’ – imagines a speculative narrative dominated by a game referred to as ‘The Ceremony of the Flowers’. While the rules of this game are only alluded to, they seem to be an abstract synthesis of poetry, mathematics and esoteric knowledge that envisage the world as an abstruse place full of elaborate rituals involving obscure signs and symbols. It functions as an intercessor of sorts between the mundanity of the world and the quasi-divine. In the process, the work asks questions about belief and the things that we chose to put our faith in.

20/05/2026

Joseph Heffernan's solo exhibition is now open at GOMA Waterford – drop by to take it in!

Working across painting, drawing, text and assemblage, Heffernan's practice weaves together identity, ritual and memory.

His latest show 'where oxlips and the nodding violet grows' centres on a speculative, mysterious game referred to as 'The Ceremony of the Flowers': part poetry, part mathematics, part esoteric ritual. It's a world of obscure signs and symbols that sits somewhere between the everyday and the quasi-divine, asking what we choose to believe in – and why.

‘𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ | 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱, 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 - 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺–𝟱𝗽𝗺 | 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 | 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲

19/05/2026

Join us for a special audio descriptive tour of ‘where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’, a solo exhibition of work by Joseph Heffernan at GOMA Waterford, led by by the exhibition’s curator Aideen Quirke.

This tour takes place as part of the 2026 Bealtaine Festival, Ireland’s national festival celebrating the arts and ageing. Free and open to all - just drop in! Thursday 28 May 11am–12.30pm

Audio descriptive tours are designed to make art accessible to everyone. In this tour, Aideen will guide visitors through the exhibition with rich, detailed verbal descriptions of the works, bringing the visual world of the show into vivid focus for visitors who are blind, have low vision, or are experiencing difficulties with their vision.

As well as describing the works themselves, the tour will offer insight into their artistic and thematic significance, providing a deeper understanding of Heffernan’s layered and symbol-rich practice.

Aideen Quirke is independent curator and artist from Co Tipperary, based in Cork City.

‘𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝗿𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝘁 𝗚𝗢𝗠𝗔 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

About Joseph Heffernan:

Joseph Heffernan is an Irish artist based in Backwater Artist Studios, Cork. Working across painting, drawing, text and assemblage/installation his practice is concerned with identity, rituals, performance and how memory is constructed.

His current body of work – presented in ‘where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’ – imagines a speculative narrative dominated by a game referred to as ‘The Ceremony of the Flowers’. While the rules of this game are only alluded to, they seem to be an abstract synthesis of poetry, mathematics and esoteric knowledge that envisage the world as an abstruse place full of elaborate rituals involving obscure signs and symbols. It functions as an intercessor of sorts between the mundanity of the world and the quasi-divine. In the process, the work asks questions about belief and the things that we chose to put our faith in.

19/05/2026

The Waxed Lemon Presents: POETRY DAY WATERFORD 2026

Come along to GOMA on Thursday for a poetry reading featuring three of Waterford's finest poets - Lani O'Hanlon, Mark Roper, and Clíodhna Bhreathnach.

Thursday 28 May, 6.30pm
GOMA Waterford
Drop in – all welcome!

---

The Waxed Lemon, in association with Waterford City and County Council and , is presenting Poetry Day Waterford 2026. Admission to all events is FREE thanks to the support and funding of the Arts Office of

GOMA Waterford is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Waterford City & County Council.

13/05/2026

Artist Joseph Heffernan, whose current exhibition 'where oxlips and the nodding violet grows' runs at GOMA until 6 June, will host a drawing performance on Friday 15 May in connection with this year's National Drawing Day celebrations.

Drop in to the gallery from 2pm–5pm, where Joseph will be making a series of drawings in the gallery space in response to the exhibition in-situ.

Building upon a recent similar event in Triskel Art Centre, Cork, Joseph will take the objects and images in the exhibition as a starting point and abstract them in an attempt to build new forms and associations. The resulting drawings will then be used when plotting a way forward into a new body of work.

Visitors will be able to observe the artist's process and creative approach unfold in real time.

This approach is at home with Heffernan's broader practice. His work – spanning sculpture, painting, drawing and text – draws on found, antique and reclaimed materials to explore how objects accumulate meaning over time. Devotional in spirit, his assemblages and installations create theatrical environments that question how we construct and poeticise personal narratives, and what we choose to hold as significant.

His current body of work imagines a speculative world governed by 'The Ceremony of the Flowers', a mysterious game that blends poetry, mathematics and esoteric knowledge into an elaborate system of signs and rituals. Sitting somewhere between the everyday and the quasi-divine, the work invites reflection on belief, faith, and the frameworks we build to make sense of the world.

All welcome | Drop in | Free admission

12/05/2026

𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼-𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗿: ‘𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’

Come along to GOMA Waterford for a special audio descriptive tour of Joseph Heffernan's solo exhibition ‘where oxlips and the nodding violet grows’, led by by the exhibition’s curator Aideen Quirke. This tour takes place as part of the 2026 Bealtaine Festival, Ireland’s national festival celebrating the arts and ageing.

Date: Thursday 28 May
Time: 11am–12.30pm

All welcome - no booking necessary!
Free entry 💫

Audio descriptive tours are designed to make art accessible to everyone. In this tour, curator Aideen Quirke will guide visitors through the exhibition with rich, detailed verbal descriptions of the works, bringing the visual world of the show into vivid focus for visitors who are blind, have low vision, or are experiencing difficulties with their vision.

As well as describing the works themselves, the tour will offer insight into their artistic and thematic significance, providing a deeper understanding of Heffernan’s layered and symbol-rich practice.

Aideen Quirke is independent curator and artist from Co Tipperary, based in Cork City.

Joseph Heffernan is an Irish artist based in Backwater Artist Studios, Cork. Working across painting, drawing, text and assemblage/installation his practice is concerned with identity, rituals, performance and how memory is constructed.

‘𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝘅𝗹𝗶𝗽𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀’ 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗿𝘂𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝟵 𝗠𝗮𝘆 – 𝟲 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲

𝗚𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀: 𝗧𝘂𝗲𝘀𝗱𝗮𝘆 - 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆, 𝟭𝟭𝗮𝗺–𝟱𝗽𝗺 | 𝗔𝗱𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗿𝗲𝗲 | 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲

𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘦: ‘𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘪𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘵’, 𝘑𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘱𝘩 𝘏𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯 2025, 𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘰𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯, 50 𝘹 40𝘤𝘮

GOMA Waterford is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Waterford City & County Council.