Cnuasach, a group exhibition in the Dr. Tony Ryan Gallery, brings together twenty-one artists in a dialogue between established and emerging artists. Featuring eleven Members of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts alongside ten invited artists, the exhibition creates a space for exchange and discovery across generations, practices and perspectives.
The exhibition presents four recurring themes: landscape, portraiture, grids and abstraction. While distinct in their histories and visual languages, these subjects provide a framework through which the artists explore questions of perception, structure, space, memory and approaches to image-making.
Landscape appears as a site of observation, recollection and transformation, while portraiture offers a means of considering identity, presence and our relationship to place. The grid introduces ideas of order, repetition and systems, but can equally become a point of tension or disruption. Abstract practices move beyond direct representation, inviting viewers to engage with colour, gesture, surface and form on their own terms.
By bringing Academy Members together with invited artists, the exhibition places different approaches in conversation, allowing unexpected connections and contrasts to emerge. Rather than proposing a single definition of contemporary practice, Cnuasach emphasises the range of ways in which artists engage with paint, image, material and form.
Moving from recognisable imagery towards more open-ended forms of expression, the exhibition considers how established artistic languages continue to be questioned, reworked and extended through contemporary practice.
Exhibiting artists include:
Tinka Bechert, John Bensons, George Bolster, Joanne Boyle, Elaine Byrne ARHA, Amanda Coogan, Dorothy Cross RHA, Martin Gale RHA, Jason Gubbiotti, Pat Harris RHA, Eithne Jordan RHA, Alice Maher RHA, Elva Mulchrone, Abigail O’Brien PPRHA, Mick O’Dea PPRHA, Geraldine O’Neill RHA, Armelle Skatulski, Tamsin Snow, Charles Tyrrell RHA and Michael Wolf.
Images: 01. Tamsin Snow, Standby, 2026, Hand-painted framed photography on archival Hahnemühle paper with tinted glass, 80 x 60 x 2cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
02. Joanne Boyle, PSN-Parasympathetic Nervous System, 2025, Oil on linen, 90 x 90cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Jason Gubbiotti, Proto Hugs & Prescription Drugs, 2026, Acrylic and felt with powder-coated screws on wood panel, 73 x 60.5 x 8cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
#Cnuasach
