Visual Art Commissions 2024-2026

Martina O'Brien, Maeve McCarthy and Róisín Lewis announced as recipients

The Visual Art Commissions give the successful artists funding to create new work for an exhibition in the Municipal Gallery, dlr LexIcon, Dún Laoghaire. The artists will create new work that examines and connects to Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County; the exhibitions are scheduled to place in 2025 and 2026. They are funded by the Arts Council.

Martina O’Brien will respond to Dún Laoghaire’s peripheral bays, banks and sounds. These new artworks will be developed through engagement with researchers and marine environment experts and will explore the continuous altering of the seabed.

Maeve McCarthy’s main themes tie in with earlier works set near her childhood home in Sandycove. The sites of memory: gardens, shortcuts, the few wild places displaced by the ever-expanding built environment. Her mother also grew up in the area, and Maeve plans to research photo and film archives to recreate places lost to development and time.

Róisín Lewis’ work is a response to journeys she makes through the landscape. The wildflowers that line the boroughs pathways in midsummer, a fascination with weaving drafts, data, language and a love of walking, form the starting point for this commission.

Gallery

About the artists

Martina O’Brien

Martina O’Brien is a visual artist working across a diverse range of media and contexts including moving-image, installation, printmaking, drawing, exhibitions and artist residencies. Her research-led practice is preoccupied with thinking about how people engage with the natural world through different technologies and her projects are typically developed through engagement with communities of interest, including community-based organisations, citizen scientists, academics and members of the scientific community. She has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad and national solo exhibitions include the Highlanes Gallery and Butler Gallery. She has received numerous bursary and funding awards from various funding bodies including the Arts Council of Ireland and has participated in several artist residencies including UCD Parity Studios; aboard the Research Vessel the Celtic Explorer; European Commission (IT) and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), UK.

Maeve McCarthy

Born in Sandycove, Maeve’s practice extends across a range of landscapes, moving from natural figurations to man-made structures in urban and rural, day and night palette. After graduating from NCAD in 1987, she travelled to the U.S. and then moved to Hamburg, Germany, where she worked in animation production. Returning to Ireland in 1995, she had her first solo exhibition at the Frederick Gallery in Dublin. In 2009, McCarthy's path took her to the wild landscapes of the Dingle Peninsula. She now lives in Dublin. She has been a member of RHA since 2007 and has had regular solo exhibitions with the Molesworth Gallery since 2006.

Róisín Lewis

For several years, Róisín has focused mainly on drawing. Recently, she has been exploring ways of expanding her practice, by integrating printmaking and sculptural processes, indigenous building techniques and approaches to textile construction. This development of her practice has been supported by Arts Council of Ireland Professional Development and Agility Awards. She has participated in several residency programmes including the RHA Clare Island Residency, the Anni and Josef Albers Foundation residencies in Connecticut and Senegal, IMMA Artists Work Programme, and at the West Cork Arts Centre. Her work has been exhibited in Ireland and abroad, most recently in a solo exhibition Shuttle in, Change and Beat at the Custom House Gallery, Westport and in group shows at Assab One, Milan and Atelier des Empreintes, Pays de la Loire.