On a lovely Saturday afternoon on May 9th, guests gathered at The Tea Houses in Kilkenny for the opening of ‘Castalia: An Unfolding Story’, a solo exhibition by visual artist Brianna Hurley. With the sun shining and a generous crowd turning out, it was a wonderful afternoon. Visitors to the exhibition spilled outside, milling about in the warmth, with lively conversations about the work and the artist heard drifting through the air. The event marked the opening of a vivid and thought-provoking body of work by the artist, bringing together existing pieces alongside new additions. The exhibition invites viewers into an entirely imagined world and asks urgent questions about our own.
Hurley’s paintings conjure a planet of hot red earth and towering forests, rendered in acrylic paint, pencil and acrylic marker with striking chromatic intensity. Oasis of colour and calm draw the eye, while small figures, including the artist herself, absorbed into landscapes far larger than herself reward the careful observer. But Castalia is no simple paradise. The indigenous peoples of this imagined land face the pressures of human encroachment, and the work speaks directly to questions of how we live in relationship with the land and with one another.
For visitors who wanted to delve deeper into the imagined world of Castalia, Hurley’s artist book ‘The Story of Castalia’ (2022), originally launched at KCAT Art Centre, was on view and was available for sale throughout the exhibition.
Hurley has been a studio artist at KCAT since 2018 and has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally. The exhibition was curated by Shannon Carroll as part of the Kilkenny County Council Arts Office Programme.
