Exhibitions 2026

Pilgrim – Susan Mannion

Thursday 5th March – Saturday 11th April

Opening Reception: Thursday 5th March, 6pm-8pm

Water Energies, Enamel on steel wall panel 1m x 1m

Custom House Studios + Gallery cordially invite you to the official opening reception of ‘Pilgrim’, a solo exhibition by artist Susan Mannion. Opening Thursday 5th March @6pm – 8pm, exhibition continues until Saturday 11th April, 2026.

Pilgrim is an exhibition of work by Susan Mannion, an Irish artist and curator specialising in enamelled metalwork and printmaking. In Pilgrim, Susan explores the profound human impulse to seek out sacred places near to water, where the entwining of place and story occurs. Drawing on her background as an archaeologist, this body of work examines the physical and spiritual layers of the Irish waterscape—from the ancient dark bog pools and wells of Roscommon, along the rivers and to the sea at Westport in Clew Bay, where a Pilgrim’s journey comes to an end.

Susan Mannion has exhibited in 12 solo and several group exhibitions. Her work is held in private, public, national and international collections. Susan has won commissions, including the Wild Nephin National Park and Roscommon County Council awards. Susan won the Merrion Plinth Award 2022 and travelled to Japan to receive a prestigious award from the Japan Enamel Artists Association.

A Tenuous Line – Niamh McGuinne

Thursday 5th March – Saturday 11th April

Opening Reception: Thursday 5th March, 6pm-8pm

Scallop (2026), transfer print on film, 42cm x 30cm

Custom House Studios + Gallery cordially invites you to the official opening reception for A Tenuous Line, a sole exhibition by artist Niamh McGuinne on Thursday, 5th March at 6pm – 8pm.

A Tenuous Line is a multimedia exhibition presented in the upstairs gallery by Niamh McGuinne, a Dublin-based visual artist whose practice combines print, sculpture, film and installation. Her work investigates the formulations of middens, accumulations of discarded material, and historical rubbish heaps. There are 77 midden sites situated in Mayo, eighteen of which are sheltered in Clew Bay, typically containing shells, bones and other such remnants of survival. They are read as sites of temporary occupation, holding traces of movement and diets. This tenuous line is not a line drawn on a map. It is a line drawn around resources, around bodies, around access.

Niamh McGuinne has had many solo shows, including Carapa’ (2023), Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda and Sojourn (2024), Rathfarnham Castle. She is a member of Shell/Ter Artist Collective, who together have exhibited in the National Gallery of Ireland (2022), Draiocht (2022), Limerick City Art Gallery (2023) and GOMA Waterford (2024). As a member of MIDDEN collective, she has exhibited in Lumen Gallery, London (2021), Takt Berlin (2022), the Luan Gallery, Athlone (2022) and upcoming QSS Belfast in June 2026.

Thread Softly – Daniel Chester

Friday 23rd January – Sunday 1st March

Opening Reception: Friday 23rd January, 6pm-8pm

‘Fleeting Foxgloves’, Oil on Dibond

Thread Softly a solo exhibition by Daniel Chester opens Friday January 23rd at the Custom House Studios + Gallery Friday.


Thread Softly is a solo exhibition of paintings by Daniel Chester, focusing on the ecology of the rural Irish landscape. In this body of work, Chester delicately captures the subtle interplay between land, water, and sky, revealing the hidden networks and quiet vitality of Ireland’s countryside. His brushwork and palette evoke both the resilience and fragility of native flora, shifting weather, and the ever-present traces of human touch.
Chester invites viewers to consider the interconnectedness of all living things within these landscapes. “Thread Softly” becomes both a gentle admonition and an invitation: to look more closely, to tread with care, and to reflect on our relationship with the land that sustains us.


This exhibition offers a contemplative journey through fields, bogs, hedgerows, and meadows—spaces where art, ecology, and memory intertwine.
Daniel Chester is a visual artist living in County Leitrim. He obtained a Masters Degree in Visual Arts Practices from IADT in 2009, previous to that he obtained a Degree in Fine Art from Sligo IT in 2001. Chester has exhibited throughout Ireland and abroad, with a number of recent solo and group shows including Beyond the Stile, SolartGallery; The Land is Ours, Luan Gallery, Athlone; Beyond the Plains, Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon; The Ethereal Space, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo; Identity, Westival Westport, Co Mayo and Seeing is Believing, Sol Art Gallery, Dublin.


Thread Softly will be officially launched on Friday January 23rd at 6pm in the Custom House Studios + Gallery. Exhibition continues to March 1st.


www.danielchesterartist.com

Through a Different Lens – Carrowbeg Artists – Group Exhibition

Friday 23rd January – Sunday 1st March

Opening Reception: Friday 23rd January, 6pm-8pm

Opening Remarks by Ann Marie McGing, Arts Officer, Mayo County County Council

‘Original Cyanotypes’

Upstairs Gallery | Carrowbeg Artists

The Carrowbeg Artists are a group of artists with intellectual disability who have been creating together for over 16 years in the Custom House Studios + Gallery facilitated by artists Breda Burns, Caroline Masterson, and Gráinne O’Reilly. The group has a remarkable legacy of projects already produced with the support of Mayo County Council Arts Service Upstart award, the MSLETB as well as the Arts Council and Pobal.

Exhibiting Artists Ellen Cafferkey | Sarah Kelly | Trish Kelly | Anna Rose Lowry | Máire Maguire | Gerry O’Malley | Elsa Jenny Rochford

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