09 May– 31 May 2025  

The Vaults at Lavit Gallery 

Orla O’Byrne presents photographic work, drawing and installation in response to her ongoing project at St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork, where she is overseeing the conservation of a large collection of historical plaster models. Lavit Gallery is located just 300 metres from St Fin Barre’s Cathedral. For this exhibition, the artist envisages the gallery’s vaults, tucked snugly below ground level, as a symbolic inner world where she is free to temporarily depart from the systematised logic of the conservation project. Here, she focuses on the intriguing visual language of fragments and embraces the role of chance in her work. 

 

 

Orla O’Byrne, South Tower, St Mark, 2025, digital print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta 315gsm, image 29x 21cm

 

“I work across a variety of media and methods such as drawing, photography and sculptural installation. I frequently use chalk, charcoal and plaster in my work and adopt an experimental approach, constantly exploring and testing the limits of these and other materials. The ideas behind my work come from the overlooked histories of specific sites or artefacts and I have a particular curiosity about what’s concealed within the vastness of the institutional archive.” Orla O’Byrne, 2025. 

 

Orla O’Byrne is an artist and researcher currently based between Backwater Artists Group and St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, Cork. She holds an MA in Art & Process from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork, and is a PhD candidate, writing her dissertation on artists working with archival materials. Her previous awards include Lavit Gallery Student of the Year, the CIT Registrar’s Prize and The Valerie Gleeson Bursary Award.  Orla has been Chair of the Board of Backwater Artists Group since 2023. At St Fin Barre’s Cathedral, her time is divided between pioneering a rolling arts programme and overseeing a conservation project.