An exhibition opening in Galway Arts Centre this weekend will celebrate the innovative work of Tuam-born sculptor and video artist Laura Buckley on what would have been her 47th birthday.

Painting with Light, curated by independent curator and arts adviser Eamonn Maxwell, will feature some of her sculptural installations – all of which are being exhibited in Ireland for the first time.

Director of Galway Arts Centre, Megs Morley, says it’s fitting this is Laura’s first solo show in an Irish public gallery, in Galway, the “place she loved”.

Laura who was born in 1977, died in London in January 2022. She had trained as a painter at the National College of Art and Design and, according to Megs, always regarded herself as a painter of sorts, even though her focus had shifted to video and sculptural installation.

Six years after finishing in Dublin, Laura went on to study for her MA at London’s Chelsea College of Art. After graduating from there, having embraced video art, she earned a growing reputation for her innovative art in the UK and further afield.

Her work in Galway Arts Centre will include Attract/Repel a large installation centred on a mirrored fan, and based on a warning sign that Laura found while walking on Dublin’s Killiney Beach in 2014.

Distortion Site, made in collaboration with sound artist Andy Spence, which was first seen in her solo show at Sheffield’s Site Gallery in England, also features. This digitally manipulated audio and video work is projected onto polished vertical panels. Then there’s KZN, a projection Laura made in the South African province of Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Several of the digital scans that she made between 2010 and 2016, and which enhanced her reputation will also be shown.

During her career, Laura had solo shows in Ireland, Germany and the UK and she collaborated with other artists and musicians.

Her films featured in screenings for Hanger Bicocca in Milan; Bold Tendencies, London, and the Derek Jarman programme for London’s Serpentine Gallery.

Megs Morley of Galway Arts Centre describes it as a “privilege to show such an extensive exhibition of Laura Buckley’s groundbreaking and pioneering work and to celebrate her extraordinary talent in her home county on what would have been her 47th birthday”.

Laura Buckley’s Painting with Light runs at Galway Arts Centre from this Saturday, February 10, until Saturday, March 30.

The official opening is at 6pm this Saturday, after which there will be a gathering at the Galway Distillery on the city’ s Merchants Road. All are welcome.

Pictured: The show marks what would have been Laura Buckley’s 47th birthday. She died two years ago.