The Irish Contemporaries {V} Opens This Week Across Two Los Angeles Art Centers

CIACLA launches major Irish contemporary art exhibition in Santa Monica and San Pedro, opening May 15+16

SANTA MONICA, CA, UNITED STATES, May 11, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- CIACLA – Contemporary Irish Arts Center Los Angeles will open The Irish Contemporaries {V} this week, a major multi-venue exhibition of contemporary Irish visual art presented across 18th Street Arts Center, Santa Monica and Angels Gate Cultural Center, San Pedro.

Opening Friday, May 15 at 6pm in Santa Monica and Saturday, May 16 at 1pm in San Pedro, the exhibition runs through June 6, 2026, offering Los Angeles audiences a rare opportunity to engage with a wide spectrum of current Irish artistic practice.

Now in its fifth edition, The Irish Contemporaries has established itself as a key international platform for Irish artists, bringing together work that reflects the evolving nature of identity, storytelling, and contemporary lived experience.

At the centre of this year’s exhibition are featured artists Deirdre Mulrooney and Gearóid O’Dea, whose practices explore storytelling through distinct but connected approaches. Mulrooney’s work engages with performance, ritual, and the body, addressing themes of identity, displacement, and trauma. O’Dea’s work focuses on mark-making and observation, reflecting on memory, presence, and the construction of personal narrative. Together, they frame an exhibition that considers how stories are shaped, held, and reinterpreted over time.

The exhibition invites audiences to consider storytelling not as something fixed or historical, but as an active process that continues to shape identity, belonging, and cultural connection today.

“This exhibition brings together artists who are actively shaping how Irish identity and story are understood right now,” said curator Matthew Nevin. “It’s about lived experience, not nostalgia, and about creating space for different voices to be seen and heard.”

Curated by Matthew Nevin and Ciara Scanlan, the exhibition is presented by CIACLA in partnership with MART Gallery & Studios, 18th Street Arts Center, and Angels Gate Cultural Center.

Additional artists at 18th Street Arts Center include Anselm and Joan McClain, Barbara Lavery, Bren Holmes, Katie Thibault, Mary J Sheridan, and Robert Fox.

Artists exhibiting at Angels Gate Cultural Center include Arthur Rosa, Brenda Welsh, Carol Anne McChrystal, Elisabeth Banim, Inés Pesado Catrufo, Jenny Cosgrave, Jerry McGrath, Paul James Kearney, Pete Michels, Sionnan Wood, Shaun O’Connor, and Sheila McMullin.

Supported By: CIACLA, 18th Street Arts Center, Angels Gate Cultural Center, MART Gallery & Studios, Culture Ireland, the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme, Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, and The LA County Department of Arts and Culture.

matthew nevin
CIACLA
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