All Welcome, No Booking Necessary.
Celebrating the 25th year of KCAT Studio, this exhibition features works by all 19 past and present KCAT Studio artists.
All works in the exhibition, The Known and Unknown World, have taken a drawing of a five-legged cat by George McCutcheon as their initial point of reference. This work, made in 1996 remains the logo of KCAT to this day. This unusual creature exists at the centre of a sprawling exhibition that mirrors the multi-layered design of a Wunderkammer.
From the 16th century onwards these cabinets of curiosities mixed items from the arts, the natural world, and the sciences to present idiosyncratic views of existence. Juxtaposing local landmarks with fantastical landscapes, common songbirds with speculatively designed creatures, human portraits with extra-planetary beings, The Known and Unknown World invites the viewer to discover and celebrate the multiplicity of ways in which the world can be experienced, understood, and recorded.
Artists featured in this exhibition include: Andrew Pike, Brianna Hurley, Declan Byrne, Diana Chambers, Erin Hacking, Eileen Mulrooney, Fergus Fitzgerald, Fintin Kelly, Jason Turner, Karl Fitzgerald, Lorna Corrigan, Margaret Walker, Shay Croke, Sinead Fahey, Thomas Barron, Mary Cody, Francis Casey, Jack Foskin and George McCutcheon.
Curated by Benjamin Stafford in cooperation with KCAT Studio. This exhibition was first shown at KCAT Art Centre, Callan, Co. Kilkenny as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, 2025.
Curator’s Bio: Benjamin Stafford is Curator at VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow. He conceives and delivers an annual programme with Irish and international artists, with whom he works closely to realise exhibitions, publications, performances, and events. Recent projects include solo exhibitions by Amie Siegel, Ulla von Brandenburg (both 2024), Sonia Sheil, Caroline Achaintre (both 2023) and Elizabeth Cope (2022). He previously worked as a curator at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and a director at Kevin Kavanagh Dublin, and holds an MA in Art Research and Collaboration from IADT. Alongside work in Ireland, exhibitions and other projects have been realised at the University of the Arts Helsinki, University of Amsterdam, and numerous galleries and museums across Europe.
Image: o1. Thomas Barron, Untitled, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 80 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
02. Brianna Hurley, The Happy Crying Waterfall, 2025, Acrylic and posca marker on canvas, 150 x 100 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
03. Jason Turner, Curlew, 2014, Acrylic on board, 51 x 76 cm, Image courtesy of the artist.
