Solo exhibition by Louth artist Ciara Agnew opens tomorrow night

Visual artist Ciara Agnew, based in Mullacrew, Co. Louth, presents Linear Horizons, a solo exhibition of abstract landscapes exploring the complex and often uneasy relationship between humanity and the natural world.

The exhibition will take place at the Creative Spark Downtown Hub in Dundalk, with the opening night on Thursday, 10 September at 7pm, and runs until 25 September.

The exhibition brings together framed carborundum prints and handmade books containing miniature acrylic paintings, created over the past two years.

Across both bodies of work, Agnew uses layered textures, fragmented forms and fractured spaces to consider the ways in which people attempt to control, alter and shape the landscapes around them.

Rather than depicting recognisable locations, Ciara creates psychological landscapes that evoke places marked by disruption and change.

Her richly textured carborundum prints suggest terrain that has been excavated, fractured or reshaped, while the intimate scale of the handmade books invites a more personal engagement with the ideas explored throughout the exhibition.

At the heart of the work is an interest in the traces that human activity leaves on the land. Ciara reflects on landscapes carrying evidence of exploitation, disruption and imbalance, while simultaneously acknowledging their beauty, resilience and vulnerability.

Ciara says: “I am interested in how landscapes carry traces of exploitation, disruption, and imbalance, and how abstraction can communicate emotional and environmental unease.”

Through abstraction, Linear Horizons moves beyond the representation of specific places to explore a broader emotional response to environmental change.

The works encourage viewers to consider not only the visible transformation of the landscape, but also the psychological and emotional consequences of humanity’s attempts to dominate and control the natural world.

Based in Mullacrew, Co. Louth, Ciara Agnew is an abstract painter and visual artist who holds an Honours Degree in Fine and Applied Art from the University of Ulster, specialising in painting.

She is an active member of Creative Spark Print Studio and a member of Visual Artists Ireland and Louth Craftmark.

Ciara has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been acquired by the Office of Public Works, with more than a dozen artworks held in the collection.

One of her paintings was included in Currents: Art of the State, a touring exhibition. Her work is also held in the collections of Louth County Council and the Smurfit Art Collection, as well as private collections in Ireland, Australia, France and the USA.

With Linear Horizons, Ciara brings together printmaking and painting to create an evocative body of work that asks us to look more closely at the landscapes we inhabit — and to consider what they reveal about our relationship with the natural world.