On June 6th we were particularly delighted to open Root Fall the first solo exhibition by Sligo Artist Marita O’Hanlon. The exhibion follows on from Martia receiving the Cairde Visual - Hamilton Gallery Award last year.

Opened by artist Emma Stroude, Root Fall presents a series of oil paintings that explore landscape as a living surface shaped by movement, boundary, and transformation. Working from time spent exploring the landscape, painting is approached as a process of mapping, piecing together fragments of terrain, movement, and lived experience into layered compositions that balance fluidity with tension.

The exhibition draws viewers into densely layered visual fields and closely observed environments where patterns, textures, and shifting structures unfold across the painted surface. Shorelines, tangled undergrowth, rock formations, and unstable ground become sites of both tension and comfort, slowing the viewer’s gaze and encouraging sustained attention.

These landscapes are not presented as distant views, but as intimate encounters with environments shaped through proximity and duration. Through layered compositions and intricate surfaces, Root Fall reflects on the trans-formative and restorative potential found in natural spaces, where erosion, growth, and memory are connected.