Kathleen Furey
Kathleen Fury was born in Galway. She studied painting at the Limerick School of Art & Design, graduating in 1984.
She is a founder member of Artspace Studios ,established in 1986 by a collective of artists aiming to facilitate affordable workspaces and a resource centre for Visual Artists living in Galway.
Kathleen has exhibited in solo and group shows both at home and abroad, and her work can be found in public and private collections. She lives and works in Oughterard, Co. Galway.
"My work is a response to my environment and evolves through observation of the people, landscape and objects around me."
Colour, pattern and symbols form the basis of Kathleen's work. Sometimes it represents a narrative, other times it could capture a moment in time. She uses a wide variety of media to create her pieces including a combination of mixed media including acrylic, gouache, printing inks, crayon and coloured pencil on board and paper.
Artist's Statement
My work responds to experiences and surroundings. It deals with memory, loss and moments of realisation. Recent work explores how text and image combine to produce narrative and reflects on how information comes to us through marks on a surface, how we discover traces of people who lived before us and how we interpret their stories and histories.
Select Exhibitions
2026 The Mountains are Calling, WBN, Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol, UK
2025 International Original Print Exhibition, Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Bankside Gallery, London.
WBN Tell the Trees (Listen to the Trees), Church Gallery, LSAD, Limerick
Tell The Trees (Listen to the Trees), Bower Ashton Library, UWE Bristol, UK
Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
uachtarARTS Annual Group Show –
Lough Corrib, Our Legacy, Ár gCroí, Courthouse, Oughterard
Members Show, Interface Inagh, (Clifden Arts Festival 2025)
Connacht Callout, Oughterard Courthouse, County Galway
Summer Group Show, Kenny Gallery Galway
2024 Endless Horizons, uachtarARTS/OCAP Oughterard Courthouse
Tús : Beginnings Collective Art Exhibition, Ballinasloe Library
Magic of Merlin, SCCUL Centre Ballybane, Eastside Arts Festival Galway
Conamara – Inspired by Harry Clarke, Clifden Arts Festival, (uachtarARTS)
Christmas Group Show Kenny Gallery, Galway
2023 Members Show, Interface Inagh, (Clifden Arts Festival)
Full Circle – Group Show, uachtarARTS/OCAP Oughterard Courthouse
2022 St Gobnait’s Journey, Culture Night, Baile Bhuirne
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
Galway Emerges, Galway Arts Festival, Kenny Gallery
Unrestricted, uachtarARTS Group Show, Courthouse, Oughterard
2021 Curacha, Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr, Aran Islands and NUIG
Side By Side Clifden Arts Festival (Solo)
Cuimhní – Two person show (with Leah Beggs) Oughterard Courthouse
Stimuli – Group Show, uachtarARTS/OCAP Oughterard Courthouse
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
2020 Cuimhní – Two person show (with Leah Beggs), Oughterard Courthouse
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
2019 Revisit, Town Hall Theatre, Galway (Solo)
Impressions Biennale, Galway Arts Festival,
Imprint, uachtarARTS at Oughterard Courthouse
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
Group Show, Conamara Sea Week, Letterfrack
2018 Sowing a Seed : Archives to Art, Creative Ireland /Galway County Council, Tuam Library
Armorica, Oranmore Arts Festival
Group show, Conamara Sea Week, Letterfrack
2017 Impressions Biennale, Galway Arts Festival (Selected by Jason Hicklin)
Process, uachtarARTS Show at Oughterard Courthouse
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
Conamara Sea Week, Small Works Exhibition
2016 Side By Side, Galway Decade of Commemoration, The Courthouse, Oughterard. (Solo)
Impressions Book Art, Galway Arts Festival 2016, (Selected by Prof David Ferry)
Rain on the Wind, uachtarARTS Group Show, The Courthouse, Oughterard
Legacy, National Fine Art Print Competition Exhibition, Hyde Bridge Gallery, Sligo (Selected)
From Midnight zone to Abyss, Conamara Sea Week, Letterfrack
Small Dogs, Oughterard Library
Art Trail, Clifden Arts Week
2015 Impressions Biennale, Galway Arts Festival (Selected by Prof. David Ferry)
Transfer Exhibition, Oughterard Courthouse
M’áit dhúchais – My Native Place, Oughterard Courthouse
Bookmarks XIII : Infiltrating the Library System Projects, Centre for Fine Print Research, University of the West of England, Bristol
Group show, Conamara Sea Week, Letterfrack
2014 Bookmarks XII : Infiltrating the Library System Projects, University of the West of England, Bristol
Wexford Artists Book Exhibition, Limerick School of Art and Design
By the Lake, uachtarARTS Group Show, pop-up Gallery, Oughterard
6×4 Group Show, Culture Night, Oughterard
Group show, Conamara Sea Week, Letterfrack
Christmas Group Show, Oughterard Courthouse
Galway Design Week, West Shore Studio
