Leanne McDonagh: Community & Connection

Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, presents an exhibition by artist Leanne McDonagh, Community & Connection, her most comprehensive showcase to date. The exhibition has been organized through an extended period of engagement between McDonagh and curator Miguel Amado, director of Sirius Arts Centre, and features a newly commissioned series of screenprints alongside a broad selection of photographs made since 2011.

McDonagh is part of the Traveler community, a group recognized as an ethnic minority by the Irish state that has historically been identified by its nomadic lifestyle and has continuously faced discrimination from the wider, settled population. As McDonagh became aware of outsiders’ distorted conceptions of Travelers, she dedicated her practice to recording their lives and heritage from an insider perspective to create more authentic and constructive representations. As she puts it, “If somebody else is showing what it is to look like a Traveler, I am showing what it is to feel like a Traveler.”

McDonagh has employed image-making technologies that ostensibly involve a direct relationship between artist and subject, yet she has developed a style that challenges such understanding based on slow exposure, which deliberately blurs figures and their scenarios. Vibrancy and privacy suggest a fluidity between the camera’s eye and reality that speaks to the transient nature of the Traveler community.

McDonagh’s visual approach was already evident in her early photographs. In works such as Mischievous Play (2011), the effects allow subjects to remain partially obscured, collapsing the boundaries between bodies and spaces. The works are rooted in relationships of trust with the people documented, and demonstrate her sensitivity in relating with them. Pavee Presence (2020), a pivotal work, further exemplifies McDonagh’s aesthetic and desire to subtly yet vividly capture the circumstances of Travelers with positivity. The title derives from the traditional language of the Traveler community: pavee means “traveler.” The photograph was taken at a horse fair, a long-standing place for Travelers to gather, and depicts two women walking next to a stand. Bright flashes of neon expand across the image, and high luminosity and haziness evoke joy and confidence in an ethereal exploration of identity. 

McDonagh often features symbols and realities of the Traveler community that can speak globally as well as intimately. Layering narrative is important in many works, as in the series Reminiscence (2014–15), which emphasizes both the distinct characteristics of Traveler culture and universal aspects of social relations. In the series Accommodate vs Assimilate (2016–17), McDonagh responds to the ongoing housing crisis facing Travelers in Ireland, addressing the harrowing consequences of failed government policies by revealing dignity in parallel to harsh accommodation conditions. 

In 2022, following an invigorating residency at Cork Printmakers, McDonagh revisited her interest in screenprinting and began the series Community & Connection (2026), in which she overlays photographs from various periods and contexts to mix details and enhance tonality. The works suggest the intergenerational passing of knowledge, portraying Travelers in moments of informality such as family meetings, celebrations, scenes of labor and trade, domestic interiors and activities, and public gatherings. Tinkering with Tradition, for example, shows her father tinsmithing, a common trade in the Traveler community, usually transmitted down through generations.

McDonagh associates her practice with the therapeutic notion of “glimmers” (the opposite of traumatic “triggers”). Glimmers are atmospheres where one has a sense of safety with themselves and others, the environment they are in, and the relationships they hold. They can help in dealing with inherited traumas, and broadly reflect the artist’s experience of the Traveler community. “We may not remember exactly what somebody said to us in a particular setting,” she notes, “but we remember how they made us feel. That is what I want my images to put across.” 

This exhibition is organized by Sirius Arts Centre and is part of a tour that includes Sirius Arts Centre, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, and Limerick City Gallery of Art. The tour is produced by Rayne Booth. The exhibition and the tour are funded by the Arts Council of Ireland through a Project Award and the Touring of Work Scheme.

About Sirius Arts Centre
Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, approaches art through the lens of society. It organizes focused, artist-driven projects and collaborative, community-oriented projects. It facilitates the production and presentation of, and public engagement with, art and knowledge. It operates across all art forms—visual, performing, live, film, sound, vocal, written, and born-digital—programming a mix of exhibitions, performances, events, activities, and publications both on-site and online.

Sirius Arts Centre’s operating capacity and programming are made possible with public funds from the Arts Council of Ireland and Cork County Council.