Exhibition of work by Graduate Residents of MTU CCAD 2025-26 MTU Gallery 46 Grand Parade 6th-17th of July 2026

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Michelle Walsh

Michelle Walsh’s practice explores relationships between nature, memory, transformation, and intuitive ways of making. Drawing on experiences of gardening, foraging, and close observation of the natural world, Michelle works across painting, sculpture, drawing, and mixed media to investigate how materials can carry meaning and evoke emotional and symbolic connections. Much of her work begins through collecting, journalling, and experimentation. Natural forms, textures, and seasonal changes become starting points for visual exploration, often developing into abstract, sculptural, or imagined forms. Walsh is interested in allowing materials and processes to guide the direction of the work, embracing uncertainty, play, and discovery as essential parts of making. Through process-led approaches, Michelle explores how art can create spaces for reflection, connection, and transformation, inviting viewers to engage with both the material and emotional qualities of the work. Michelle Walsh is an artist, art therapist, and educator. She holds an MA in Art Therapy from MTU and has a background in Herbal Science and Organic Horticulture. She was Artist-in-Residence (2025–26) in MTU 46 Grand Parade, where she developed an independent body of work exploring relationships between natural forms, material experimentation, and sculptural processes. Her work has been exhibited in group exhibitions in the Kinsale Arts Weekend exhibitions since 2022. Contact details: michellewalsh2005@gmail.com Instagram: michellebeebbb

Siân Foley

Siân Foley’s practice explores feminist politics through materially driven sculpture, centering the lived experience of the modern woman, often neurodivergent, moving through systems that extract care, time, and attention. Foley works across a variety of mediums to examine burnout, masking, and the quiet refusals that push back against patriarchal expectation. The artist uses tactile materials, clay, stitched cloth and found objects. Seams, joins and repairs are kept visible, evidence of labour rather than mistakes to be hidden. Her hand-crafted forms represent reality and self- determination. The soft sculptures embody fluidity, vulnerability, and resilience, representing a version of womanhood that is self-made. The intricate construction of these forms reflects the difficulty and struggle of reclaiming one’s identity beyond societal expectations. Siân creates, tests, and reassembles, an approach that reflects neurodivergent pacing and attention. Surfaces hold traces of repetition and pause, the count of stitches, the rhythm of sanding, the time spent creating. These marks are not decoration, but records of how a body manages overload and care in real time. Ultimately, Siân Foley’s sculptures create spaces for recognition, to name burnout without spectacle, to treat repair as knowledge, and to model forms of support that privilege difference, rest, and refusal. Siân Foley is an artist and educator based in Waterford, working across ceramics, glass, and textiles. She graduated in 2025 with First Class Honours from the BA (Hons) in Contemporary Applied Art at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, where she received the Graduate Textiles Residency, Backwater Studios and Sample-Studios memberships, the Textile Network award, the Helen Stringer Memorial Award, and selection for The Ar Scáth a Chéile at the MTU James Barry Gallery. Foley has exhibited at MTU’s Grand Parade Gallery (Elements, 2024), the MTU CCAD Degree Show (2025), the MTU James Barry Exhibition Centre (Ar Scáth a Chéile 2026), and in international partnerships with UNArte (Romania) and the Romanian Embassy in Dublin. She teaches Art at Gaelcholáiste Phort Láirge and supported Higher-Education teaching at MTU CCAD as part of her textile residency (2025/26). Contact details: Instagram: sianfoley_artist Phone no: 087 777 4290

Erin Halpin

This time in the Drawing space helped in building a reconnection for Halpin, in both her and her work. Being granted the space to continue to build and inform her ‘drawing toolkit’ alongside her peers, while also being allowed the opportunity to offer insight and assistance as a recent graduate, Halpin has noticed a completely new artistic practice form, in a rekindled appreciation for drawing. Megan Eustace (MTU CCAD Drawing lecturer) often spoke of ‘Neuroplasticity’ in the space throughout the year, and Halpin is currently fondly reaping the rewards of such and her time spent studying there. Revitalised by this experience comes the newest body of work. The work draws from the safety of space; be it in the body, the room, the community. Drawing is a focus - not only of the model you work with, but of yourself. It brings attention to how we observe, how we hold ourselves while mark-making, the drawing implement and its application, how we communicate through these things combined, be it in form, line, light, shadow, or lack thereof. The drawing process requires a total bodily presence and a reactive response to the moment. In creating this work, Halpin took an informed and intentional live study of her lava lamp. Following the morphing and unique shapes that come in and out of existence, Halpin’s responding movements in mark-making flow in tandem with the emerging shapes. Halpin compares the lamp to the human vessel. Just like Eustace's mention of neuroplasticity, it is free flowing, alive, yet contained, constantly evolving, growing, shifting and changing. The work is an attempt to control what cannot be contained, while also accepting that it cannot be recreated nor recovered the same way ever again. Erin Halpin is a Kerry raised artist now relocated to Cork. She graduated from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design (CCAD) with a BA in Fine Art in 2025. Her Degree Show earned her the Cork Film Centre Lens Based Media award, and she was offered the Drawing Residency at MTU CCAD for the following academic year ‘25-’26. Erin got the opportunity to work in the Life Room under the mentorship of Megan Eustace, and the Drawing First and Second Year students for the now completed academic year. Other exhibitions have included AMALGAM - 3rd Year show 2024, To the Power Of______ - 3rd Year Print Elective exhibition 2025, and Neither Here Nor There - Fine Art Graduate Degree Show 2025. Contact details: ErinHalpinartist@gmail.com Instagram: @ErinHalpinArt

 Ruthy O’Donnell

 Ruthy O’Donnell’s work reflects a period of transition, shaped by uncertainty and the pressure to continuously evolve while still feeling unsure of who she is becoming. Since graduating, O’Donnell found herself thinking about where she’s grounded herself, the people, objects, and routines she returns to, and how those things begin to shape a sense of identity. Using sculpture as a form of self-portraiture, Ruthy O’Donnell recreates personal belongings and familiar objects as stand-ins for the body. Rather than directly depicting herself, the artist is interested in the traces people leave behind in the things they wear, carry, and keep close to them. These everyday objects hold emotional weight, becoming markers of comfort, memory, routine, and change. Working primarily with metal, she uses welding as both a method of construction and a way of drawing through material. Ruthy allows the process to remain visible through rough welds and texture, embracing imperfections rather than refining them away. Through this, ordinary belongings are transformed into quiet reflections of a person still in the process of forming. Ruthy O’Donnell is a Cork-based sculpture-based artist who has primarily worked with metal over the past few years. She graduated from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design with a BA(hons) in Fine Art in 2025. Since graduating, she has been the Sculpture Resident at MTU Crawford College of Art & Design. She also completed an internship at Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, where she developed an additional drawing practice focused on observation, capturing moments, and responding to the materials and environment available to her. Contact details: ruthy.odonnell@gmail.com Instagram: @ruthyodonnell.art

Anna Cavenagh

Anna Cavenagh’s work is informed by her experience as a migrant and is interested in examining colonialism and the feminine experience in contemporary western culture. Cavenagh’s work examines and questions historical and contemporary societal norms and mores by juxtaposing conflictual and oppositional elements. Shutter Quilt (2026) is a large-scale textile work which investigates the mirroring of the contemporary Irish housing crisis and the historical use of land ownership as a tool of colonisation. The work uses quiltmaking and sublimation printing to juxtapose both contemporary and historical imagery. Anna Cavenagh is a Swiss-Australian artist based in county Cork, Ireland. She is a recent graduate from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design and SETU Wexford School of Art. Cavenagh is a 2025 winner of the Blurring The Lines graduate photography award for photographs included in her degree show. Her work will be included in the Backwater Studio Emerging Curator Award exhibition in April 2027. Contact details: Instagram: @annacavenagh Website - annacavenagh.com

Megan Fahy

As an Irish ceramic artist, Megan Fahy’s work is inspired by the profound connections we share as humans, particularly the comfort and healing that comes from an embrace. Holding one another has been scientifically proven to enhance feelings of happiness and comfort. Fahy works with porcelain and earthstone, materials that symbolize the delicate balance between strength and fragility. This body of work highlights the shine we receive when we are in the arms of a loved one. Subconsciously, we glow from within during the embrace. An archive of personal photographs informs the pose, gesture and composition of the vessels, with each set representing a significant relationship. The artist is hopeful that her vessels will remind others of meaningful connections throughout their own lives. Having dealt with severe anxiety for the majority of her life, Megan uses clay as an escape and hopes to provoke the same feeling in others throughout her work. Fahy chose the colour palette to induce the feelings of comfort, calmness, connection and love. Megan Fahy is a Cork-born Irish ceramic artist. She graduated from MTU CCAD in 2025 with a First Class Honours from the BA (Hons) in Contemporary Applied Art and was awarded the ceramics residency at MTU CCAD. Her work has previously been on display in the James Barry Exhibition Centre (‘Ar Scath le Cheile’, 2026), The Lavitt Gallery (Winter Exhibition 2025) and MTU Gallery at 46 Grand Parade (EMERGE 2025). She is currently a graduate resident in The National Sculpture Factory, with upcoming shows for 2026 in St. Peter’s Church, Cork and The Lavitt Gallery, Cork. Contact details: mfahyart@gmail.com Instagram: @mfahyart

Caoimhe Fitzpatrick

Caoimhe Fitzpatrick’s work explores the material qualities of painting and investigates how we physically engage with the spaces and surfaces of our daily environments.

Her practice engages with expanded approaches to painting challenging the constraints of traditional media and embracing contemporary approaches that situate painting as a dynamic, spatial and process driven practice. A key focus of her investigation is the intrinsic relationship between painting and surface. Through a combination of drawing and painting, Fitzpatrick employs methods such as staining, tracing, and spontaneous mark-making to create paintings in a meditative and embodied process. Caoimhe Fitzpatrick is a visual artist based in Cork. Caoimhe graduated with First Class Honours from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 2025 and received the shared Graduate Residency Award with MTU Crawford College of Art Design and Backwater Artist Group. She participated in NCAD Superprojects/Clancy Quay Studios Professional Development Programme 2025/26. Contact details: caoimhefitzstudio@gmail.com Instagram: @caoimhefitzstudio

Andra Elena Postolache

 Andra Postolache’s work captures the multilayered experience of women. Her work seeks moments driven by emotion and open conversations. Her photography explores how women are seen and understood, offering a space of resistance. Simultaneously tender and confronting, Andra's work reveals moments of vulnerability, elation, tension, pleasure and poignancy. Currently, Andra Postolache is researching female care and pain, rooted from a previous socially-engaged finding that: ‘’Being a woman is rooted in pain, from the very beginning, it is ingrained in us…Women experience more pain than anyone else…We care and take the burden of a lot of people, and that is still pain at the end of the day.’’ Andra is focusing her research on Endometriosis, a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb starts to grow in other places, causing extensive pain and distress. Postolache’s research inquires how pain manifests on the whole body. Through her photographic fragmentation, Andra explores the intricate relationship between the mind and body, highlighting how their inter-connection shapes our sense of self and wellbeing. Postolache’s work accentuates the necessity of caring for both the mind and the body to ameliorate a whole system, yet, this responsibility often falls disproportionately on those who suffer, raising questions: Who cares for women? How is care received and given to women? When, where, and how much care is given or received by women? These inquiries form the fundamental questions of her image-based practice, challenging viewers to confront the systemic and societal frameworks that govern care. Andra Elena Postolache is a Romanian-born, Irish based artist that graduated with a First Class Honours degree in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design. Andra Elena was awarded the 2025/2026 MTU CCAD Photography Residency and the 2025/2026 MTU 46 Grand Parade Gallery Residency, which gave her the opportunity to assist first-year and second-year photography students with camera use, post-production editing, photo printing and the curation of two exhibitions. The body of work presented as part of her degree show received the ORIGINS Graduate Solo Exhibition Award 2025. The same work, Under Scrutiny, was longlisted by the RDS Visual Art Awards 2025. Postolache exhibited book editions from the same project at the Dublin Art Book Fair in the Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, in 2025 Andra Postolache curated the Fort Camden (/Sait/) Response photography exhibition (28th May-1st November 2026) in Fort Camden Meagher, Cork. Contact details: Instagram:@andra.elena.postolache Website: https://andravisualart.wordpress.com/

Ailbhe Coughlan

 Ailbhe Coughlan’s practice aims to engage with the complex phenomenological question of what it means to have a body. Coughlan approaches this concept by presenting abstract anatomical forms as an internal view of the body. Drawing inspiration from the concepts and aesthetics of the Grotesque, they create these visuals through an array of mixed media and printmaking processes. Coughlan’s practice centers on exploring what can be achieved through experimentation across material and process. This inquiry is in pursuit of achieving a visceral sense of the matter and intricate systems that build up our anatomy. The work invites the viewer to treat the body as a site for introspection, prompting reflection on just how unknown the unseen internal workings of our bodies are to us. Within this framing, Coughlan develops upon themes to do with universal experiences, such as mortality, growth and autonomy. The work on display represents a full circle moment for Coughlan’s practice over the past year in their residency. The monoprints of textile components (Internal Scan, 2026) were created using the primary process and materials that Coughlan utilised when entering the residency. The metal/bioplastic piece (Untitled 2026) stands for all they have learned throughout the year; being introduced to new materials and printmaking processes through mentorship under printmaking lecturer Lynn-Marie Dennehy, and workshops ran by EALS (Ecological Art Labs) at the college. The work encompasses Coughlan’s love of experimentation while encapsulating the thematic basis of their practice. This piece changes over time. Its visible pattern continues to grow and develop, its appearance dictated by its own agency. Ailbhe Coughlan is Cork-based artist. They graduated from MTU CCAD with a bachelor's (Hons) in Fine Art and were awarded the printmaking residency at MTU CCAD and the curator residency at MTU 46 Grand Parade Gallery for ‘25-’26. Ailbhe has exhibited previously in the MTU James Barry Exhibition Centre (‘Amalgam’, 2024), Cork Printmakers Studio Gallery (‘To the Power of_____’, 2025) and in MTU CCAD (‘Neither Here Nor There’, 2025). Contact details: ailbhemcoughlan@gmail.com Instagram: @_ailbhe.c.art