INSPIRATION can come from many places at any time. and this is evident with three artists currently exhibiting in Belfast who have been inspired somehow by interior and exterior landscape.

First up is Stuart Calvin with 'This Maze of Being' at Shankill Library, a building which was really warm the day I visited. Stuart graduated from the University of Ulster as a mature student and is currently a member of Flax Art Studios. He was the first recipient of the annual Gerard Dillion Award at the Cultúrlann and was awarded The Royal Society of British Sculptors Bursary given to an early career artists judged to be of outstanding talent by the RBS.

The exhibition consists of a series of manipulated black and white photographs taken in nature of other worldly visions of reality referring  to a change of perception that can take place during the grieving process. Mysterious and dreamlike Stuart describes his work as a search for meaning, theories of consciousness pervade, mystical connections insinuated. This series of images are an extension of an earlier body of work based on the death of a loved one. They hang on golden chains around the room, like precious memories bound up with the moments of light and shadow captured and saved.

'This Maze of Being' upstairs at Shankill Library, until 28 February  

Valerie Giannandrea McKeag is exhibiting at ArtisAnn Gallery with Sightlines, a series of landscape paintings 'exploring the transient effect of light and weather and the passing of the seasons on the landscape of Northern Ireland'. Of Italian descent she graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and then spent 12 years in London as an illustrator before moving to Belfast in the late nineties and retrained as an art teacher.

First known locally for her one-off painterly prints developed as a member of the Belfast Print Workshop she shifted her focus to landscape painting. Having just spent a couple of days walking in the Mournes I immediately recognised some of the atmospheric light conditions she has captured, from evening light on Spellack Cliffs to summer days on bog roads and the glorious sun beam shining through clouds on the road to Silent Valley. All of the paintings are in acrylic of various sizes and their texture quality speak to a contemporary version of a classic subject 

Sightlines by Valarie Giannandrea McKeag is running at ArtisAnn, 70 Bloomfield Avenue, BT5AE until 28 January.

Davy Mahon with Dungeon at Ulster University at York Street's new gallery space on the  Belfast campus. Davy is a graduate of Ulster University and previous co-director of Catalysts art and Platform. He is currently project curator at Ps2.

The exhibition spans a timeline of around ten years and consists of a series of assemblages, drawings and writings with many capturing the interior landscape of the artist's thoughts. Have you ever sat on the side of a bed with one sock on for twenty minutes? he asks. In a note called 'things to say to performance artists that are true', he brainstorms a series of placards, like 'this is not as interesting to look at as it is to do' or 'this should not be done in lieu of seeing a therapist'. 

He has actually exhibited some of the work in a disused bomb shelter where the title of the exhibition comes from and I was particularly struct by a collage showing a volcanic eruption coming out of Larne. He is reinforcing the importance of making art without institutional permission. 'You don't need art institutions, they need you,'  he writes. The exhibition will have a series of collaborator engagements in the space over its duration.

Dungeon by Davy Mahon is open at Art Gallery, Ulster University, Belfast campus, Block BC York Street Belfast Ulster until 15 February.