Ballagh visual artist opens debut solo exhibition
Steve Wickham and multi-disciplinary visual artist, Maria May, in background with artist, Susie Harty, in foreground as Maria May unveiled her debut solo exhibition, Sruthanna Comhcheangailte - The Fluidity of Interconnection at Ballinglen Art Gallery. Pic: Marek Petrovič
An established Ballaghaderreen artist has unveiled her debut solo exhibition at one of Ireland’s most celebrated art venues.
Maria May’s An Sruthanna Comhcheangailte - The Fluidity of Interconnection - opened on Friday, January 30th at Ballinglen Art Gallery.
The exhibition, which runs until March 15th, was opened by award-winning violinist, songwriter and composer, Steve Wickham.
Steve, who shared a studio with Maria during her BA honours studies at ATU Sligo, delivered an opening speech marked by characteristic warmth and insight.
He praised her rare ability to capture the passage of time within her work, a quality that sets her apart. Equally striking was his tribute to the unique value mature students bring to the art world. His reflections spoke to the depth of lived experience, the fresh and often hard-won perspectives, and the creative richness they contribute to both education and artistic practice.
The exhibition is an inquisitive and deeply felt search for belonging. Through a rich layering of mixed media, stitching, poetry and collage, Maria offers abstract interpretations of the 22 major Arcana cards of the Tarot. This body of work transforms ancient symbolic wisdom into a vivid, sensitively held meditation on reconnection and healing.
In troubled times, the exhibition invites viewers to consider the energies that might help us reconnect with ourselves and nature. At its heart, it is both a catalyst for dialogue and a joyful celebration of all life.
Her creative journey began on Fårö, a small, windswept island in the Baltic Sea, where she grew up in the 1970s. “I forged an early, very emotional connection to everything in the natural world; the flowers, the trees, the water. It was just a magical place to grow up as a child,” she recalls.
After moving to Ireland in 2004, that deep affinity with the natural world became the foundation of her practice today, an ongoing exploration of interconnection spanning installation, video, live art, and poetry. She holds a First-Class BA (Hons) in Fine Art from ATU Sligo. She was long-listed for the RDS Visual Arts Award in both 2023 and 2024, and was the winner of the 2024 Ballinglen Arts Foundation Student Artist Award. She is currently completing an MA in Creative Practice at ATU Sligo.
