Late Night Art: Thursday 5th February 5-8pm

Dates: 5th – 7th February 2026

Gallery: Lower Gallery

Talk: 6th February at 1pm

On the first Thursday of every month, many of Belfast’s galleries and studios stay up late so that audiences can enjoy after-hours access to some of the finest visual art that the city has to offer. A great post-work social activity to enjoy by yourself or with friends and family, embrace the atmosphere of Late Night Art and immerse yourself in Belfast’s art scene. Participants can expect to see media from across the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, photography, illustration, craft, video, and performance, and no two Late Night Art experiences are ever the same!

We are excited to showcase our growing Golden Thread Gallery Collection this Late Night Art with a pop up exhibition in our Lower Gallery by Belfast artist Clement McAleer. 

McAleer is known for his landscape oil paintings. His paintings focus mainly on landscape, not on specific places but on the changing, restless qualities of nature. Clouds, water, land, and sea shift into one another, creating a strong sense of atmosphere. The Irish coast is a major influence, and memories of it are always present in the studio. Travel in Europe and America has also inspired many works, especially a series of railway paintings from Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. In these, structure becomes more important. Sometimes a visible grid is used and then softened or hidden, helping the painting move between abstraction and the feeling of actually being there.

Talk on Friday 6th February:

We’re delighted that Clement will be joining us for a walkthrough of the lower gallery with Amanda Croft on Friday 6th February at 1pm. Please join us for a fascinating insight into this beautiful exhibition.

About the Artist

Clement McAleer  was born in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. After a Foundation Course in Belfast (1971-72) he studied Fine Art at Canterbury College of Art (1972-75) and the Royal College of Art, London (1975-78). He was awarded the J Andrew Lloyd Award for Landscape Painting (RCA) in 1978 before moving to Liverpool where he was a prizewinner in the John Moores Exhibition (XI). He then settled in Liverpool and was based in a studio in the Bluecoat Arts Centre for twenty five years. He kept in regular contact with his home base in Ireland over the years with residencies and holding exhibitions in various parts of the country. In 2003 he then moved  to Belfast where he joined Queen Street Studios (Belfast’s oldest established artist’s studio group). In 1981 he was awarded a Major Award by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and in the same year completed a Mural commission for The Royal Liverpool Hospital.

Having exhibited extensively in Dublin, Belfast, London and abroad his work has steadily entered public and corporate collections including Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), Ulster Museum (Belfast), Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool), the Arts Councils of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the European Parliament (Brussels) and Allied Irish Banks.

About the Collection 

Golden Thread Gallery is building a permanent Collection of Northern Irish contemporary art to preserve our visual history and safeguard works of art that could otherwise be lost to the public.
Some of the most powerful and important contemporary artworks made within and about Northern Ireland in the last five decades have been exhibited just a few times, and many have not been seen by the public in years. Others have been sold to private collections or removed from Northern Ireland entirely to museums and galleries abroad.

Our Collection project emerged from our Collective Histories of Northern Irish Art series, an ambitious series of exhibitions and publications across a decade whose aim was to form, collectively, a significant archive of Northern Irish Art from 1945 to the present. Central to the project was an acknowledgement that there are many versions of history.

About Amanda Croft

Amanda Croft worked as a lecturer and art historian in the Further and Higher Education sectors in Belfast for over thirty years, specialising in twentieth-century and contemporary international and Northern Irish art. She continues to lecture regularly on the visual arts for the Ulster Museum and runs Arttalks: Artwalks which aims to introduce the contemporary arts in Ireland to adult groups, individuals and arts societies.

Accessibility 

The Lower Gallery is accessed via the ground floor, which is step-free.

Large print versions of exhibition texts are available.

Please let us know if you have any questions or additional requirements, we are working hard to make the gallery as accessible as possible for everyone.

Golden Thread Gallery is supported by: