Contemporary Irish artist Karen McLaughlin presents Hidden Light, a solo exhibition of more than 30 contemporary abstract paintings.
Working through abstraction, McLaughlin’s paintings consider how memory, emotion and lived experience shape the way we experience the land around us- and how, in turn, the landscape quietly reflects and transforms our inner lives. Richly layered with texture, gesture and light, the works invite moments of stillness and contemplation, encouraging viewers to form their own personal connection with each painting.
Curated by Dino Notaro, Hidden Light explores landscape not as a destination, but as a meeting place between the external world and our own inner experience. The exhibition invites visitors to slow down and reflect on the subtle dialogue between place, memory and self.
About The Artist
Karen McLaughlin is a contemporary Irish artist based between Dublin and the Inishowen Peninsula, County Donegal. Her practice explores the emotional and psychological experience of landscape, creating paintings that exist between memory, observation and imagination.
Working in both mixed media and acrylic, McLaughlin develops immersive surfaces where traces of the natural world emerge and recede. Rather than depicting specific places, her paintings evoke the shifting qualities of light, weather and atmosphere, inviting viewers into landscapes that feel both deeply familiar and impossible to fully define.
The landscapes of north-west Ireland provide a continual point of departure, but the work is less concerned with representation than with the experience of being in a place. The horizon becomes a recurring motif not as a destination, but as a space of possibility, reflection and quiet transformation.
Through an intuitive process of building, obscuring and revealing, McLaughlin creates contemplative works that encourage stillness and personal interpretation. Her paintings ask us to look beyond the visible landscape and towards the subtle, often unseen connections between ourselves, nature and the passage of time.
Karen studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), Dublin, and exhibits throughout Ireland and the UK.
Opening Reception: Thursday, 6 August 2026 | 6–8pm
The exhibition runs at Ranelagh Arts, Dublin from August 6th to September 5th 2026
