The Irish Contemporaries {iv}
A Celebration of Irish Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
You are invited to the Opening Reception June 7th at 1pm at 18th Street Arts Center
Exhibition Details
📍 Location: 18th Street Arts Center, Olympic Campus, 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
📅 Opening Reception: June 7th, 2025, at 1 PM
🕛 Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Friday, 12 PM – 5 PM
📅 Exhibition Dates: June 7 – June 27, 2025
CIACLA in partnership with 18th Street Arts Center, proudly presents The Irish Contemporaries {IV}, a dynamic group visual arts exhibition from June 7 – June 27, 2025.
This highly anticipated fourth edition of CIACLA’s annual exhibition brings together a compelling selection of LA based & Irish artists exploring themes of identity, cultural memory and social engagement.
A Platform for Irish Contemporary Art on the Global Stage
The Irish Contemporaries series has become an essential platform for showcasing the breadth and diversity of contemporary Irish visual art in Los Angeles. By presenting work in Los Angeles—one of the world’s most influential art capitals—the exhibition creates opportunities for Irish artists to engage with new audiences, gain international recognition, and contribute to a wider cultural dialogue with local artists. Each year, The Irish Contemporaries fosters cross-cultural exchange, amplifying the voices of artists from Los Angeles, Ireland and the Irish diaspora.
Curated by Matthew Nevin & Ciara Scanlan, this exhibition showcases a range of visual art forms, including performance, digital media, sculpture, and print, offering visitors a glimpse into the cutting-edge talents of contemporary artists based in Ireland and Los Angeles.
Featured Artists
This year’s exhibition highlights the work of three exceptional Irish artists whose practices explore themes of migration, identity, technology, and embodiment:
Beulah Ezeugo examines postcolonial geographies and memory, engaging with archives to interrogate the legacy of borders and migration. Her work in projects like the Éireann & I Archive illuminates shared memories between Irish and Nigerian diasporas, challenging colonial narratives and fostering cross-cultural connections.
Clodagh Boyce blends textiles, audio, and collage to critique marginalization, memory, and self-definition. Their socially engaged practice, rooted in community organizing, explores identity and belonging through a queer and diasporic lens, as seen in projects such as A TOTAL TRANSFORMATION IS NEEDED at MART Gallery.
El Putnam merges performance and digital media to investigate the interplay between the body and technology. Her recent work, Under the Feet of Shadows, combines speculative fiction and myth with themes of technological and ecological entanglement, using art to explore our evolving relationship with digital systems.
Stay tuned for an announcement of the local artists presenting work alongside these featured artists.
Supported By
The Irish Contemporaries {IV} is made possible through the generous support of CIACLA, 18th Street Arts 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.
“This exciting group exhibition showcases a mix of photography, visual art, and film, offering a unique assemblage that casts a spotlight on the captivating blend of techniques, narratives, and perspectives characterising the contemporary art scene in Ireland and Los Angeles,” says co-curator Matthew Nevin.
Check out the previous exhibitions: