On this episode, Caren Sullivan visits artist Leah Hewson in her studio in 2024. Always wanted to know what is like to be inside an artist studio? Watch full Instagram interview here.

Leah Hewson has a First-Class BA(Hons) degree in Fine Art from IADT, Dublin Ireland.

Solo exhibitions include 'Kin Connection', The Royal Hibernian Academy (2024), ‘Blowout’ Stoney Road Press, INK Miami(2022), 'Ammo Veil' ,Hillsboro Fine Art gallery (2018) and ‘Scintilla’, The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2017) which was the culmination of work produced during a six-month residency at The RHA School. Other residencies include Nars Foundation, Brooklyn, New York (2018), SIM Residency, Berlin (2019) and Wilton Park Studios Residency, Dublin in (2019 -20), Facebook AIR program (2020).

Hewson won the Whyte's Award for painting at the 190th RHA Annual Exhibition, was shortlisted for the Hennessy Craig Biennial Award in 2019 and is accredited with the Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Travel Bursary Award 2018.

Hewson's work continues to be collected internationally, including being auctioned at Sotheby's, while public collections include The Trinity College Dublin History of Art collection, The Office of Public Works, Dublin, The Law Society of Ireland, the Microsoft Collection, Fidelity Investments and The Cleveland Clinic.  

Hewson recently created an installation for Art on Paper in New York in 2022, and more recently Beyond the Pale Festival and has painted murals at Stoney Road Press and Kicky's restaurant in Dublin.

Artist Statement;

"“Beneath the threshold of conscious awareness lies the unconscious mind. Accounting for approximately 95% of total brain activity, this domain governs much of human cognition through automatic and affective mechanisms. It serves as a dynamic archive of experiences, memories, and associative patterns that shape our perception, decision-making, and behaviour. These shared unconscious processes also connects us as humans on a deeper level across cultures through our collective unconscious.

I aim to explore this hidden space through an introspective painting practice. My goal is to find freedom in expression—free from social expectations or aesthetic rules. Inspired by Jung’s theory of Individuation, I access the unconscious through practices that create a state of flow, such as meditation, automatic writing, and movement. In the studio, I adopt an impulsive and instinctive relationship to colour, materials, and techniques, remaining open to any possibility. I listen to hypnotic repetitive music through headphones and work on multiple pieces at once in order to let go of control and create the optimal environment for flow state to emerge. 

The work begins with pure abstract movement and evolves into a dialogue between unconscious gestures and conscious symbols. Through this process, a visual language of layered patterns and grids emerges that is complex yet playful and invites a contemplative platform between individual and collective experience.

The dance between elements and layers in the paintings signals the impossibility of remaining solely in the realm of the unconscious. Taking these elements from my abstract lexicon, I extend my artistic expression into supplementary forms such as installation, sculpture, and murals. This is an attempt to hold the unconscious experiences that feature in the present reality and offer them a space of their own to exist as symbols and beacons of the unconscious.”

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For more information, follow Leah Hewson on Instagram @leahewson

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