TWO West Cork artists are among 12 emerging talents who have been selected for an inaugural exhibition at the RDS with a prize fund of over €32,500.
Harrison Connally and Róisin Ní Chonaill have been chosen for the RDS Visual Art Awards 2026, which opens at Gallery RDS this November.
Harrisson Connally, originally from Texas, spent two years living off-grid in a yurt before moving to Ireland and is now based near Kinsale/Ballinspittle.
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He takes inspiration from Irish nature through botanical materials, sculpture and moving image.
His work includes seaweed and bladderwrack, exploring evolving human relationships with natural materials and specific sites in West Cork.
Róisín O’Connell is an artist and mother living and working on Sherkin Island.
Her practice spans film, sculpture, installation, sound and performance.
Her selected work, MARTS MOTHERS MADNESS, was made on Sherkin with cattle and presented in a cattle trailer on the farm where it was created, exploring identity, belonging and the boundaries between human and animal. The RDS Visual Art Awards 2026 exhibition opens on November 6 and runs until January 23, 2027.
The 12 artists were selected by six independent curators who visited graduate exhibitions across Ireland in April, May and June.
The exhibition marks the inaugural exhibition at Gallery at RDS. The exhibition brings together practices spanning painting, sculpture, photography, film, installation, textiles, sound and socially engaged practice, reflecting the diversity of contemporary work emerging from Ireland’s art colleges.
Judges include Rachel Joynt, Christina Kennedy, Paul McAree, Sarah McAuliffe and Patrick Murphy.
Winners will be announced on November 19.
