Isabel Nolan's Secular Chapel 'Dreamshook' Transforms Irish Pavilion at Venice Biennale

At the 2026 Venice Biennale, the Irish Pavilion presents Dreamshook, a secular chapel by Dublin-based artist Isabel Nolan. Nolan, who represents Ireland, has transformed the pavilion into a space of physical and intellectual respite, contrasting with the exhausting route through the biennale's central exhibition and other national pavilions. The installation features a pale-yellow chamber flooded with daylight, a radiant tapestry arched like a stained-glass window, and a cluster of archangel's wings bearing books. Nolan's work celebrates scientists and humanists, including Copernicus, Tony Soprano, and the inventor of the semicolon, an Italian punctuation master. She appropriates religious imagery for her secular tributes, blending art, history, and popular culture. The pavilion is located after the Philippines, Latvia, Timor-Leste, Morocco, Malta, and Oman pavilions, and visitors often arrive exhausted. Nolan's installation aims to provide a moment of calm and reflection, emphasizing the heroic obsessions of her subjects.