Exhibition Programme 2023

Please note that dates are subject to change. 

Kevin O'Farrell
Hegarty’s Boatyard: Last Surviving Traditional Wooden Boatyard in Ireland
13 May to 10 June

This body of documentary photography, developed over 20 years, celebrates Ireland’s disappearing maritime heritage and the skills of traditional wooden boatbuilders focusing on three generations of the same family working in Hegarty’s Boatyard, Oldcourt, Skibbereen, Co Cork. Kevin O’Farrell’s practice draws on the traditions of photojournalism and magazine reportage. The exhibition comprises many photographs of the restoration of the AK Ilen, the last of Ireland’s traditional wooden, ocean-going sailing ships, as well as a new set of photographs of the restoration of the Saoirse, a 42 foot ketch on which Connor O’Brien circumnavigated the world in the 1920s. Both vessels were built in Baltimore, re-built in Hegarty’s of Oldcourt and documented throughout the process by Kevin O’Farrell.

“This is a strong, classic body of photographic work, which records and preserves an important part of Ireland’s living heritage. The photographs offer rich interpretations from a variety of perspectives – and I believe the exhibition will garner interest from those interested not only in photography and art, but also in maritime culture, as well as archaeologists and cultural historians.” Tanya Kiang, Curator, Photo Museum Ireland.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre Members and Friends
17 June to 20 July

Running annually for more than 35 years, this exhibition showcases work by artists from across West Cork and beyond at all stages of their careers. Submission is open to the many artists who subscribe to our Membership and Friendship schemes. Often including 300 or more individual artworks by over 100 professional, student and amateur artists, this exhibition offers an opportunity for many to exhibit in a professional arts venue for the first time.

lucent 
Niamh Clarke, Vincent Hawkins, Hiroyuki Hamada, Tjibbe Hooghiemstra, Jamie Mills, Janet Mullarney, Helen O’Leary, David Quinn, Seamus Quinn, Sean Sullivan and John Van Oers
29 July to 9 September

lucent  is an exhibition of small works by international artists curated by artist David Quinn, involving eleven artists - Niamh Clarke (NI), Vincent Hawkins (UK), Hiroyumi Hamada (JN), Tjibbe Hooghiemstra (NL), Jamie Mills (UK), Janet Mullarney (Ire), Helen O’Leary (Ire), David Quinn (Ire), Seamus Quinn (Ire),  Sean Sullivan (US) and John Van Oers (NL).

'Although I have curated quite a few exhibitions, I am first and foremost an artist and not a curator. This exhibition is a very personal project. The work I have included is by artists whose work and progress I am always keen to see. I think there is a lot of truth in Robert Motherwell's quote 'every intelligent painter carries the whole culture of modern painting in his head. It is his real subject, of which everything he paints is both a homage and critique.' To a greater or lesser extent the artists in this exhibition have been inspirational to me or sometimes it is just as Emerson said 'in every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts'.

One of the common threads through the work of these artists for me is a sensitivity for materials and for the quality of line. All the artists here also blur the distinction between painting and sculpture. Their sculptures can be quite painterly and there is a subtle tactile element even to the works on paper. The other thing that interests me is that it is often hard to pin down exactly what the works are about (if that is what one is inclined to do). There is an inherent ambiguity in lots of the work, a vague open-endedness. Also the scale that these artists often work on is intimate and personal. The works are memorable rather than monumental, suggestive rather than didactic, playful rather than strict. Where there is order it is often subverted and generally an air of gentle irreverence. Ultimately though the thing that draws these works together for me is that I find them beautiful.'

David Quinn, 2022