Lavit Gallery

CORK ARTS SOCIETY VAULTS AWARD 2026

Initiated in 2025, this relatively new award is given to one graduate from the combined fourth year graduating class of Fine Art and Contemporary Applied Art at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design. The awardee has the opportunity to exhibit in the unique vault spaces at Lavit Gallery and are selected based on the suitability of their work for the space. They also receive an artist fee of €500, productions support, professional photographic documentation of the show, two mentoring sessions with Lavit Gallery Director Brian Mac Domhnaill and a speaker fee for an artist talk event during the exhibition run.

The recipient of the 2026 Cork Arts Society Vaults Award is Sarah Murphy.

Congratulations Sarah! We look forward to working with you in 2027.

The 2026 MTU Crawford College of Art & Design fourth year exhibition, ‘Second-Hand Smoke’ is open to the public 6-11 June, 11am-6pm (late opening Thur 11 June to 8.30pm)
arts

CORK ARTS SOCIETY STUDENT OF THE YEAR 2026

The Student of the Year Award was initiated by Cork Arts Society in 1967, with sculptor John Burke as the first recipient and subsequent awardees including Maud Cotter, Eilis O’Connell and Vivienne Roche. More recent recipients of the award include Andrea Newman, Lara Quinn and Danny Foley.

The award is given to one or more students from the combined fourth year graduating class of Fine Art and Contemporary Applied Art at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design and includes an exhibition in the main space at Lavit Gallery in 2027, a cash prize of €1000 sponsored by Roberts Advisory, productions support, professional photographic documentation of the show, two mentoring sessions with Lavit Gallery Director Brian Mac Domhnaill and a speaker fee for an artist talk event during the exhibition run.

This year the award will be shared by four artists: Katelyn Stritch, Lucy Ahern, Quinn Sweeney, and Ciara O’Neill.

Congratulations to you all! We look forward to working with you.

The 2026 MTU Crawford College of Art & Design fourth year exhibition, ‘Second-Hand Smoke' is open to the public 6-11 June, 11am-6pm (late opening Thur 11 June to 8.30pm)
stritch_

VENUE HIRE - BOOK LAUNCH

Yesterday evening we were delighted to host Banshee Press for the launch of Render, a book of poetry by Billy Ramsell. Congratulations to all involved.

Venue hire continues to be an important new revenue stream for our organisation and it also allows us to introduce more people to what we do. For more information about venue hire please visit our website or contact our Director Brian Mac Domhnaill at [email protected]

FEATURED ARTIST | Ita Freeney

Within and Beyond | 21 May– 13 June 2026

Dublin born, Ita Freeney graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design with a BA Honours degree in Fine Art (1994). She now lives in Cork. During 2023 and 2024, solo exhibitions of her series of paintings – Water’s Edge, have taken place at South Tipperary Arts Centre, Custom House Studios & Gallery (Westport) and The Paul Kane Gallery (Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin). Other solo exhibitions have included Outer Edges at The Lavit Gallery, Cork (2019), A New World, Paul Kane Gallery, Dublin (2008), New Paintings, Fenton Gallery, Cork (2006), the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick (2002), Strata, Paul Kane Gallery (2001). Recently her work has been included in the following group exhibitions - From Source to Sea, curated by Michael Waldron at the Crawford Art Gallery,2024; Visual Presence, Boyle Arts Festival, 2024; the Ballinglen Biennial Exhibition at the Ballinglen Museum of Art, Mayo 2023 and the 192nd RHA annual exhibition( 2022). She has exhibited with the Paul Kane Gallery since 1998, with several solo and two person exhibitions and many group shows there. Her work features in many collections including: Ballinglen Museum of Contemporary Art, Mayo; Cork Co. Council; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork (as part of the National Collection); Dental Hospital, Dublin; Department of Finance; The Office of Public Works and University College Cork.

All remaining available artworks in our current exhibition can be browsed and purchased on our website by following the link provided here or in bio. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full gallery of images:
https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/within-and-beyond/

Image 1. Ita Freeney, Enveloped, 2025, Oil on Arches Oil Paper, 30 x 41cm ( unframed size) €950
Image 2. Ita Freeney, Harbour Road 2025-26, Oil on board, 22.7 x 30.5cm, €900
Image 3. Ita Freeney, Leaving the Village, 2026, Oil on Linen, 65 x 90cm, €2400
Image 4. Ita Freeney, Down To The Harbour, 2026, Oil on Linen, 56 x 76cm, €1900

OPENING TOMORROW IN THE VAULTS

SOURCE
Kevin Sanderson Beecher & Jess Franklin
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group

04–27 June 2026
Artist talk as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Kevin Sanderson is an experimental sound artist and programmer based in Cork, Ireland. His practice is rooted in a reciprocal relationship between internal and external states of awareness through deep listening, field recording, and improvisation, serving as a continuous flow between himself and the natural world. Using this connection as a catalyst for his work, he deconstructs and recontextualises source material into imagined soundscapes and live performances. In addition to his soundscape compositions and performances, Kevin develops digital performance instruments, hardware controllers, and algorithmic compositions using MaxMSP, SuperCollider, and CSound, fusing his creative practice with a diverse technical background. He is a standing committee member for a newly emerging art-science collective The Fold in Cork that connects artists with geology through focus groups, knowledge sharing workshops, and field trips. Kevin completed an MA in Experimental Sound Practice at University College Cork in 2025.

Jess Franklin is a former geologist and the founder of The Fold, Ireland’s first art and geology group. The Fold is a cross-disciplinary research group that brings together artists and geologists to explore geology as a source of inspiration for creative practice through inquiry, dialogue, and embodied engagement with the natural world. Jess completed a PhD in Geology in 2019 and worked as a public engagement manager with Ireland’s Fossil Heritage at University College Cork from 2021 to 2025, frequently collaborating with the arts. She is currently the Communications and Development Support Manager at Backwater Artists Group.

FEATURED ARTIST | Cathy Dorman

Within and Beyond | 21 May– 13 June 2026

Formerly a practising architect, in 2020 Dorman graduated in Fine Art from NCAD where she was joint recipient of the Fine Art Student of the Year award and shortlisted for the RDS Awards. In 2021 she was a recipient of the IPUT/RHA Wilton Park Studio award. Her first solo show ‘Domestic Planes’ took place at the Ashford Gallery, RHA in March 2022. Dorman exhibited as part of a two person show ‘Double Bounce’ at the Copper House Gallery, Sept 2023. Her second solo show ‘Step Away Closer’ was at the Linenhall Arts Centre, Castlebar in March/April 2024. Dorman’s work has been included in group exhibitions at RHA (2020,2021), Dunamaise Arts Centre (2019) (2024), Hang Tough Gallery (2021, 2022), Outset Gallery Galway (2022) and Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (2023). In September 2024 Dorman exhibited in the Wilton Park Studio exhibition at the RHA and recently (January 2025) completed the first segment of her fellowship at the Ballinglen Arts Foundation, Ballycastle.

All remaining available artworks in our current exhibition can be browsed and purchased on our website by following the link provided here or in bio. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full gallery of images:
https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/within-and-beyond/

Image 1. Cathy Dorman, Slide,Pivot,Click, 2024, Oil & Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 150 cm, €7000
Image 2. Cathy Dorman, Skyline, 2025, Oil & Acrylic on board, 60 x 60 cm, €2850
Image 3. Cathy Dorman, After Berthe, 2026, Oil & Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 120 cm,€5750
Image 4. Cathy Dorman, E-1027 (VI), 2026, Oil & Acrylic on linen, 40 x 30 cm, €1500
Image 5. Cathy Dorman, No Entry, 2026, Acrylic on canvas, 30 x 24 cm, €850

UPCOMING

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group

18 June – 11 July, 2026
Opening reception Thursday 18 June 5.30-7.30pm
Artist talk, as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Sulphur is an exhibition of new work by visual artist Orla Whelan. Building on her longstanding interest in geology and colour, in 2025 Orla undertook research in collaboration with The Fold art and geology group, focusing on specimens of elemental sulphur from UCC's rock collection. Initially drawn to the intense colour, Orla's research interests deepened to include the invisible crystalline structure embedded within the rocks various outward formations, as well as its historical roles in alchemy, industry and astronomy. Representing the soul in alchemy, sulphur was considered to be one of the three primes (along with mercury and salt) from which all matter was comprised, and from which any material could be created. In addition to its transformative potential and intense array of yellows, the artist considers its hidden chromatic capacities - while lemon-yellow in solid form, sulphur becomes a molten red liquid and emits a blue flame when burned. Weaving science, intuition, materiality and magical thinking through the formal language of abstraction and the materials of painting, this exhibition of new work presented at Lavit Gallery includes a floor-based painting on plywood and paintings on linen, alongside sulphur specimens kindly loaned by UCC Geology Department.

UPCOMING IN THE VAULTS

SOURCE
Kevin Sanderson Beecher & Jess Franklin
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group

04 –27 June 2026
Artist talk as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

A grain of sand begins as a fragment, separated from its source rock, it is carried by wind and water and shaped by many processes. Transforming, it moves through landscapes, gathering traces of its journey. In time, it settles. Grains settle. Layers form. What was once scattered is whole, held deep within the earth, and part of a larger, shifting landscape.

Source is an immersive sound installation, inspired by the research of former geologist Dr. Jess Franklin. Her PhD work investigated the provenance of ancient sandstones, unravelling the history of their individual sand grains, from weathering through to transport, deposition, and burial. Developed in collaboration with sound artist Kevin Sanderson Beecher, Source echoes the enormity of geological time. Using field recordings and sound manipulation, the soundscape serves as a sonic narrative that follows the long journey of sand grains through the sandstone’s life cycle.

Upon entering a darkened room, attendees are immersed in an evocative soundscape and presented with an illuminated sample of sandstone resting on a plinth. The grains of sand within the rock are over 200 million years old. They were once part of mountains that no longer exist. They traversed hundreds of kilometers before arriving at their final resting place. The simultaneously erosive and cumulative nature of this journey serves to reflect the shifting inner and outer landscapes of our own lives as humans. Through our own materiality, we weather through time, becoming contoured, curved, and cracked. Over the course of our lifetime, layers of individual and collective experience build up to form the narrative of our life’s journey.

Slow down. Listen. Return to source.

WITHIN AND BEYOND CONVERSATION

A huge thank you to our exhibiting artists Ita Freeney and Cathy Dorman, and our invited guest and chair Cristín Leach for a very illuminating conversation today. And thank you to everyone who came along.

Within and Beyond | Ita Freeney & Cathy Dorman
Until 13 June 2026

Lavit Gallery presents a two-person exhibition by painters Ita Freeney and Cathy Dorman. Their respective sources are landscapes and interiors, while for both, the work lies between abstraction and representation. Although no humans appear in the paintings, their presence is implied. Both artists go through a very considered process of experiencing, observing and investigating light and shape, and distil, emphasise and manipulate these elements in their paintings.
All remaining available artworks in our current exhibition can be browsed and purchased on our website by following the link provided here or in bio. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full gallery of images:
https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/within-and-beyond/