Crawford College of Art & Design | 2001°
In February 2026, a group of artists who first met at the CIT Crawford College of Art in 1997 and graduated in 2001 will come together after 25 years for a reunion exhibition in MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade.
Back then, student life was a mix of experimentation, laughter, learning and the infamous Crawford parties. Everyone has a favourite dish from our cosy canteen, run by the amazing Caroline. This reunion is a celebration of connection. It shows how strong the bond between us was and how it has lasted through the years. Seeing everyone’s work together, sharing space and memories, reminds us that those formative experiences continue to influence and inspire us. It’s a chance to reconnect, celebrate creativity and friendship. A time to reflect on the lasting impact of those early years.
Each artist is presenting new work, offering a glimpse into how their practice has developed over the years. Whether they have stayed close to what first drew them to art or ventured into new directions, it will be exciting to see how each artist’s practice has developed over the years. The exhibition will feature painting, printmaking, photography, multimedia and sculpture. Highlighting the variety of approaches and perspectives that have emerged. The works reflect both the individuality of each artist and the shared foundation that first brought us together.
A very special part of the show is the inclusion of works by classmates Eamon Gray and Carol James, who are sadly no longer with us. Their sculptural pieces are included to keep them close and to remember how much they were loved by all of us. Having their work in the exhibition feels natural and right, a way of honouring their memory and the friendships that shaped our early years.
About Artists
Johnny Bugler
Artist statement and bio
Johnny Bugler studied at Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork and received a masters in fine-art printmaking from Camberwell College of Art in London.
He has exhibited internationally and is the recipient of Arts Council (Ireland) awards in travel and training and for further study. In 2018 his work was acquired for the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Ireland.
My artwork is often associated thematically with the sea and the transition between land and sea; the coast. Images stem from travels, printed ephemera and found objects and allude to the notion of the exotic idyll and paradise lost. I make work in a range of media that includes print, sculpture, found objects and mixed media.
www.johnnybugler.com
Instagram - johnnybugler
Brendan Butler
Brendan Butler graduated from the Crawford College of Art & Design in 2001 and was the recipient of the Backwater Artist Bursary the same year. An active Artist ever since Butler has had solo exhibitions and participated in several group exhibitions. Butler’s work can be found in private collections and also in institutions, including Cork Opera House and Waterford Gallery of Art, Waterford. Brendan Butler was a founding Artist of the original Soma Contemporary and founding Artist of Plasma Studios 2009 - 2012 Lombard street, Waterford. Brendan works out of a studio based in Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford.
Artists statement:
I create Oil paintings and drawings inspired by music, dark tales, classic and modern literature. Using dramatic narratives as a source the works take on imagined and borrowed tales from Ireland and beyond.
The works expand on manifested narratives and characters, creating a world, space and atmosphere. The work imbues a sense of presence and tactility which is vital.
The works transcend me as an artist allowing the viewer to engage with a world they may not have imagined before, exploring perceptions of the human psyche. I create visual stories by mixing and matching fables, tales and visual clues;
Instagram - studiobutler1/
Leslie Cullinane
This body of work consists of obsessively detailed, small- scale drawings that explore the intersection of repetition and inner stillness. These pieces emerged from the profound isolation of the pandemic, a period that demanded a radical shift in my creative rhythm. After a long absence from formal practice, I found myself drawn to the ritualistic nature of the mark, using fine-line ink to navigate a world that felt increasingly fractured.
In these works, I use thousands of singular, repetitive lines to build complex, undulating structures. This process is not about reaching a finished image, but about the act of drawing itself—a form of self-regulation that slows the heart rate and quiets the mind. Each drawing is a record of hours spent in a flow state, where time is suspended but simultaneously hold within them a tension, a feeling of uncertainty and unease.
I invite the viewer to engage with these drawings from both a distance and an intimate proximity. From afar, they may appear as singular, solid forms; up close, they reveal a chaotic yet ordered landscape of individual efforts.
Bio
Les Cullinan is a Dublin based artist and a former graduate of the Crawford College of Art and Design, graduating in Print-making. His practice, however, has been mainly drawing based. His work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. The work shown here was created during the Covid 19 pandemic. This is the first time it has been exhibited.
Email lescullinan@gmail.com
Hazel Purcell
Bio
After Crawford and some travelling, I settled in Auckland, NZ. I continued to draw for several years as a hobby. The practice fell away as work and family became dominant.
During the pandemic I began drawing again and subsequently attended regular life drawing group sessions. I was unexpectedly delighted by the therapeutic aspect of drawing. My brain felt like it had been on holiday at the end of a session. At the same time, I was pleased by how accessible and implicit, the memory and language of mark making felt.
I aim to continue attending life drawing groups intermittently. I like the semi structured format of the groups and the accountability of committing to a term or block.
Eamon Gray
Bio
Eamon Gray studied Fine Art at Crawford College of Art and Design from 1997 to 2002. While at college he entered medals into the British Arts Medal Society (BAMS) Student Medal Project, winning a prize in 2001 with ‘Dual Aspects’ and again in 2002 with ‘Tsuba’; the latter was subsequently acquired by the British Museum. From 2002-2003 Eamon further developed his work researching casting techniques in the Crawford foundry. He exhibited in numerous group shows throughout Ireland, and his work is held in public and private collections in Ireland, England and across Europe.
Caitriona Hanley
After completing her degree in Fine Art, Caitríona went on to study photography for two years. Although she grew up in Crosshaven, her family roots on Bere Island created a strong and enduring pull, which has since become central to her life and creative practice. Time spent on the island offers a different perspective, shaped by a slower pace of life, and a sense of disconnection from the mainland, that continues to inform her work. Bere Island nurtured Caitríona’s deep connection to the outdoors, eventually leading her to realise a long-held dream: founding Wild Atlantic Glamping in 2021, enabling her to live and work on the island.
Caitríona’s practice is strongly influenced by her relationship with place. Through temporary interventions in the landscape, she explores themes of skewed memory, connection to land, and the inevitability of change.
Caitríona is a founding member of the Bere Island Arts Festival, a multidisciplinary annual celebration of art and creative community. Established in 2022, the festival emerged from ideas formed during the Covid period, when communities across Ireland turned to the arts to restore connection, resilience, and identity.
Instagram - wild_atlantic_glamping
bere_island_arts_festival
Websites - www.wildatlanticglamping.ie
www.bereislandartsfestival.ie
Anna Marie Holten Coughlan
Bio/statement below
Consistently sporadically makes work!
Anna Marie has worked mainly in Arts Administration and Management since graduating from the Crawford College of Art and Design and exhibited as a member of the cARTel artist group for a number of years, as a solo artist and also with Cork Textiles Network. Anna Marie has completed commissioned work for private clients and also for the Irish Times.
“I have always had a strong interest in materials and how they can work together to tell a story. A constant in my work had been a fascination with amulets, talismans, precious objects and the folklore surrounding them, often weaving their way through communities and families. How humans through history have attached meaning to certain materials and objects with a sense of connection, holding and memory. I have returned time and again to these themes in my work while continuing to think, gather and create. This however, will be the first time I have exhibited in a number of years.”
Niamh Hurley
Artists Statement:
I am a maker of lines, patterns, and quiet stories—drawn to the textures and rhythms that whisper through the everyday. My work begins in the small things: the curve of a branch, the tilt of a rooftop, the way light softens the edges of a familiar room. These modest details become anchors for memory, imagination, and atmosphere.
Across paint, print, textile, and found materials, I follow the thread of curiosity—allowing colour to swell, patterns to shift, and perspective to tilt just enough to invite a second look. Acrylics give me immediacy; pouring techniques offer surrender; mixed media lends possibility. Each medium opens a new way of seeing, a new way of listening.
I am drawn to the quiet poetry of the overlooked—the places where beauty hides in plain sight. My practice is an attempt to honour these moments, to hold them still long enough that they might reveal themselves.
I remain, always, a work in progress—learning from the ebb and flow of materials, from the world outside my window, and from the untidy, enchanting patterns of everyday life.
Carol James
(17th April 1943 – 7th Sept. 2022)
Carol came to Crawford College as a mature student, having spent most of her life in the theatre where she worked as both an actor and a writer. She was fastidious in her work with detailed notebooks and sketches full of her research for any project she undertook. She was a true nature lover, especially of trees, and this came out in all of her pieces. Her sculptural works were all created with natural objects – leaves, bark, wood and even seaweed. She was fascinated with the tales of the green man of the forest who appeared in her notebooks and her work again and again.
After leaving Crawford, Carol was often seen out walking every day, searching for material to work with at home. She would spend the summers visiting forests, parks and beaches gathering all manner of fallen leaves, feathers, driftwood and shells. In the winters, she turned these collected treasures into small works of scenes from everyday life which she then sold at craft fairs throughout Cork. Carol was always smiling and singing and she lived life on her own terms.
She is greatly missed.
Niamh Lucey
Niamh Lucey graduated from Crawford in 2001 and went on to do an MA in Aberdeen Scotland in 2003.
She returned back to Cork in 2008 and opened up her own business in 2008 in Kinsale.
Studio1 kinsale is a picture framing and art and craft shop in the heart of Kinsale. Where she lives and works with her family to today.
Niamh’s work captures the interplay of memory ,time , permanence and impermanence . Her work blurs the line between seen and felt through abstracting rural and urban landscapes .Her work is rooted in the tactile where line, colours, texture and mark making are not just visual elements but records of process.
Niamh’s work can be found on her Instagram page and also prints of her work on her shop’s website.
www.studio1kinsale.com
Insta: niamhelucey
Info@studio1kinsale.com
Image courtesy of artist
Geraldine Kieran
Geraldine Kieran received her BA in Fine Art from MTU Crawford and her HDip in Art and Design in 2010. She is a recipient of the C.I.T. Registrar’s award for her Degree show.
In 2011 she accepted a position with the Ministry of Education in Singapore (MOE) working with a 10-year programme to enhance arts education in Singapore, as their belief was art was ‘critical to the economy and society’ and partly because it would train talented people to fill creative and arts-related jobs.
With many solo and joint exhibitions since 2001, her works are to be found in major hotels in Ireland, private collections in USA, in Singapore, Australia, and UK
Artist Statement
My landscape paintings are a response to home, place, and time. After years working overseas in a city of five million people, returning to the open spaces of West Cork transformed how I see and paint the world around me.
Walking this landscape daily, I am drawn to its vast, shifting atmospheres and the reminder that everything is larger than myself. Each painting begins as an attempt to capture a fleeting mood, evolving through instinct, frustration, and discovery until the emotional connection feels true.
Working from my studio in Kinsale, I use acrylics and oils intuitively, embracing spontaneity and experimentation. Brushes, palette knives, rags, fingers, and layered blending allow the work to find its own way.
Email - www.kinsaleartmaker@gmail.com
Instagram - gerkieran_artist
Mob - 087 4641135
Hilary Kinahan
Hilary Kinahan is a visual artist and printmaker based in rural Westmeath. Her work comes from a long-term relationship with the landscape she lives in and returns to daily. Working mainly through printmaking, through etching, drypoint, she is interested in light, texture, atmosphere and how place holds memory.
Her process balances intention with openness to chance. Plates are worked and reworked, surfaces layered and marks allowed to emerge over time. This way of working keeps the work responsive and alive, often moving between observation and abstraction rather than describing a specific view.
She has exhibited widely and continues to develop her practice through printmaking, painting and mixed media.
Across all of her work, Hilary aims to create a quiet, reflective space, inviting viewers to slow down, pause and spend time with the subtle textures and rhythms of nature.
Web - hilarykinahanfineart.com
Instagram - hilary_kinahan |
Ray Murphy
Bio
Ray lives and works in Cork. He graduated from the Crawford College of Art in 2001 and received his Masters from Wimbledon College of Art in 2008. He has gone on to exhibit widely in Ireland, the UK and China.
Ray has received various awards from bodies such as the Arts Council of Ireland and has had several residencies such as at the Cill Rialiag Project in Ballinskelligs.
His work has been collected by such public institutions as the Office of Public Works. Ray has co-ordinated intervention art projects with the group POST and group exhibitions of Irish art in China with BigSmall.
Artist Statement
In my ‘Shoeing the Child’ paintings the gangly balancing act of dressing my daughter and getting her out the door comprises an unlikely, brief equilibrium of pulling and pushing forces, before the rush re-commences again.
The figure is foregrounded and used as a totem of memory. The painting is kept close to the initial drawing. Enough volume and colour to become a painting but still having the looseness and immediacy of a drawing. Briefly an awareness and enjoyment of the moment competes against the pressures of time.
Instagram - @raymurph29
website - www.raymurphyart.com
Bluesky - @raymurphyart.bsky.social
Tony O’Connor
I am a painter working primarily in oil and acrylic on canvas, with horses as the central subject of my practice. Through the interplay of light and shadow, I aim to capture not only what is seen—but what is felt. The essence of a moment, the quiet grace in the curve of a muscle, or the raw power behind a gaze—these are the stories I strive to preserve.
Horses inspire me deeply: their intrinsic tension between gentleness and wildness, their beauty in motion, and their quiet strength. My work seeks to evoke familiarity, drawing viewers into a world where memory, emotion, and form converge. I often focus on the eyes—deliberately inviting a connection between subject and viewer. To me, the eye is the window to the soul, and through it, the painting breathes.
My inspiration is rooted in my personal history. For generations, my family worked alongside horses in our forge. The rhythm of the anvil, the glow of heated iron, the scent of the earth and fire—these sensory memories echo in my work. In my paintings, bright flickers of colour emerge from darkness, as if lit by the sparks of that forge, revealing the spirit of the horse.
My process is grounded in traditional techniques. I value draftsmanship, anatomy, and the foundations of composition. Acrylics allow me to work in layers, building texture and contrast with pace and energy. Oils give me the freedom to blend and refine, to shape the subtleties of expression and form.
Ultimately, I hope my paintings feel like remembered moments—timeless and emotionally resonant. In each piece, I try to reflect the dualities we all carry: light and shadow, seen and unseen, strength and softness. A glimpse of the familiar, told in a language of line, colour, and soul.
Instagraram - tony_o_connor
Website - www.WhiteTreeStudio.ie
Mob - +353 86 104 4000
