Custom House Gallery Exhibition: Cailleachs

Launch: Wednesday // 23 Oct // 19:00

The upcoming exhibition Cailleachs will feature a curated collection of works by female identifying artists from Mayo, highlighting the art being created in the region.

The exhibition draws from their previous works, showcasing how Irish landscapes, culture, and traditions have influenced their art. The artists include:

JOANNA HOPKINS //

Joanna Hopkins is a visual artist working in video, drawing, photography and installation. Often working site specifically, using plant s and flowers as inspiration, her practice also includes collaborative projects. Recent Solo exhibitions include Fruitier Bodies, Lexicon Gallery, Dun Laogahire 2024; Fruity Bodies, GOMA Waterford 2023; The Growing Gallery, 2022, Lexicon Gallery, Dun laoghaire, Dublin; Sympathetic Soup, 2021, Cregan Building, Dublin City University; Connecting, BNA Neuroscience Conference, Science Gallery Dublin, 2019. Recent awards include CREATE Project Realisation Award 2024; The Soil Project, Butler Gallery Kilkenny, 2024; Visual Artist Bursary Award Arts Council of Ireland 2023; Platform 31 Artist Award 2022; Visual Artist Bursary Award Arts Council of Ireland 2021; Dublin City University Artist in Residence Award, 2020-2021

LOUISE BUTLER //

Louise Butler, a Mayo based visual artist whose work is influenced by the majesty of the natural landscape, the drama of nature's forces and the intrigue and mystery of the natural environment around us. As Butler investigates the wonders of the natural world, her practice is not stiffened to one particular discipline. As fluid as nature is, so too is the flow between painting, sculpture and performance art, in her search for this ultimate self-expression.

In 2017, Butler graduated with an MFA from KHiB, Bergen, Norway. This followed a BA in Fine Art from NCAD, Dublin, Ireland and 10 years of studio work. Recent awards include the Agility Award 2024, The Arts Council and Mayo County Council Arts Service Artist Bursary Award.

JENNIFER HICKEY //

Jennifer Hickey is a porcelain sculptor who lives and works on the west coast of Ireland. Living in the beauty and isolation of the west of Ireland has had an important impact on her work and allows her to observe and appreciate the continuing influence of the seasons. Jennifer works with form and texture. She sees her sculpture as trying to capture a wholeness or shape of a particular moment. It is these rituals of making, these physical rhythms, the process, and repetition involved that are all very important aspects of her practice.

Her sculptures are held in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Ireland and the Office of Public works in Ireland. She has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and Internationally and was selected to represent Ireland in the European prize for applied arts in Belgium in 2021 and also in the Dubai Expo 2020.

Recent exhibitions include the first Biennial exhibition in the Ballinglen Museum of Art (2023) She was awarded the Evan's award for her sculpture and her work was selected for the Collect fair celebrating twenty years in Somerset house in London (Feb/March 2024). In November she is exhibiting at Salon Art & Design in New York.

AISLING SMYTH //

Originally from Co.Longford, Aisling moved to Westport in 2008. Painting is her preferred medium, working in both acrylic and oil. Interiors and the ‘figure in space’ are subjects which commonly reoccur in her work. Directional responsive gestures juxtapose more literally rendered representations, exploring the relationship between the act of observation and that which is being observed.

Aisling graduated with a BA in Fine Art with distinction from the Crawford College or Art in 2006 and has exhibited widely in Ireland. Solo shows include ‘Scenarios’ , The Waterfront Gallery Westport, ‘Aquarium’, The Blackbird Gallery, Kilkenny, Group shows most recently include the 2023 Mayo Artists show in The Linenhall Arts Centre,Castlebar. Aisling’s work has been purchased for many private and public collections including the OPW and CIT art collection. “Aisling Smyth’s richly descriptive pictures evoked the sheer textural density of lived experience and memory.” Aidan Dunne, The Irish Times, June 2006.

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