Lavit Gallery

24/06/2026

FEATURED ARTWORK

Image: Orla Whelan, Soul Rug, 2026, Acrylic on birch plywood, 120 x 242 x 4 cm, POA

Soul Rug is a floor-based painting, which consists of narrow lengths of birch plywood of varying depths, painted in tones of yellow which together form an unlikely rug. More architectural than domestic, it is partly inspired by the tiled facade of a sulphur-coloured building adjacent to the UCC Geology department where the artist first encountered native sulphur. The title refers to sulphur's alchemical history - representing the soul, it was considered to be one of the three primes (along with mercury and salt) from which all matter was comprised, and from which any material could be created.

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

All available works in the show can be viewed and purchased on our website via the link provided here and in bio: https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/sulphur/

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

23/06/2026

FEATURED ARTWORK

Image: Orla Whelan, Flowers of Sulphur, 2026, Oil on linen (triptych), 100 x 219 cm, €9000

Flowers of Sulphur is a horizontal triptych in oil paint on linen whose composition suggests a floral, crystalline or starlike abstraction. The painting explores the intense yellow colour of sulphur, visible in its solid state, and as well as its hidden colour range evident in other states (when burned sulphur becomes molten red liquid and emits a blue flame). The painting's title shares its name with the everyday agricultural product used as fungicide, preservative and ointment.

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

All available works in the show can be viewed and purchased on our website via the link provided here and in bio: https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/sulphur/

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

23/06/2026

PRESS

Thank you to The Irish Examiner and Marc O'Sullivan Vallig for their continued coverage of our programme. Link here and in bio: https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/artsandculture/arid-41865756.html

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

All available works in the show can be viewed and purchased on our website via the link provided here and in bio: https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/sulphur/

20/06/2026

BROWSE & BUY ONLINE

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

All available works in the show can be viewed and purchased on our website via the link provided here and in bio: https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/sulphur/

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

20/06/2026

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Orla Whelan is a visual artist working primarily in painting. Her work takes abstraction as a field of possibility in which to speculate on all things invisible or intangible. Eschewing figurative imagery and narrative device, she employs the basic ingredients of painting (colour, form and surface), to create abstract visual propositions for an image-saturated world. Although abstract, her paintings borrow their palette and forms from the world around them, frequently inspired by geology, cosmology and architecture. In recent years, Orla's practice has expanded to include marquetry, writing, site-responsive interventions and collaborations, which have been developed alongside series' of oil paintings on linen.

Here more about Orla's work and the exhibition: Artist talk, as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Orla's recent solo exhibitions include Coloured into Shape at Hillsboro Fine Art (2024), Coloured by Weather at Custom House Gallery, Westport (2024), Glas, Gorm, Uaine at the Pearse Museum, OPW (2023) Magnum Chaos at Hillsboro Fine Art (2023), and I Don’t Need Anything From Here (magic-carpet-painting) at RHA Gallery (2022). Her book Matter Mammal Oil Soar was launched at the Dublin Art Book Fair at Temple Bar Gallery & Studios in 2021. Orla is founding director of art publishers Whale Dust and artists' collective AtHomeStudios. Her practice has been supported by The Arts Council of Ireland and her work is held in the collections of The Arts Council, Crawford Art Gallery, and The OPW State Art Collection. She is represented by Hillsboro Fine Art Gallery Dublin.

Image: Colin Carters

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

All available works in the show can be viewed and purchased on our website via the link provided here and in bio: https://lavitgallery.com/exhibition/sulphur/

19/06/2026

SULPHUR IS OPEN

Thanks to everyone who came along to the opening yesterday evening and to Bubble Brothers for the amazing wine. Save the date: Artist talk, as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
Until 11 July

Sulphur is an exhibition of new work by visual artist Orla Whelan. Building on her longstanding interest in geology and colour, in 2025 Orla undertook research in collaboration with The Fold art and geology group, focusing on specimens of elemental sulphur from UCC's rock collection. Initially drawn to the intense colour, Orla's research interests deepened to include the invisible crystalline structure embedded within the rocks various outward formations, as well as its historical roles in alchemy, industry and astronomy. Representing the soul in alchemy, sulphur was considered to be one of the three primes (along with mercury and salt) from which all matter was comprised, and from which any material could be created. In addition to its transformative potential and intense array of yellows, the artist considers its hidden chromatic capacities - while lemon-yellow in solid form, sulphur becomes a molten red liquid and emits a blue flame when burned. Weaving science, intuition, materiality and magical thinking through the formal language of abstraction and the materials of painting, this exhibition of new work presented at Lavit Gallery includes a floor-based painting on plywood and paintings on linen, alongside sulphur specimens kindly loaned by School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.
The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

18/06/2026

OPENING AT 5.30pm

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
18 June – 11 July

Opening reception Thursday 18 June 5.30-7.30pm. Wine by Bubble Brothers

Artist talk, as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Sulphur is an exhibition of new work by visual artist Orla Whelan. Building on her longstanding interest in geology and colour, in 2025 Orla undertook research in collaboration with The Fold art and geology group, focusing on specimens of elemental sulphur from UCC's rock collection. Initially drawn to the intense colour, Orla's research interests deepened to include the invisible crystalline structure embedded within the rocks various outward formations, as well as its historical roles in alchemy, industry and astronomy. Representing the soul in alchemy, sulphur was considered to be one of the three primes (along with mercury and salt) from which all matter was comprised, and from which any material could be created. In addition to its transformative potential and intense array of yellows, the artist considers its hidden chromatic capacities - while lemon-yellow in solid form, sulphur becomes a molten red liquid and emits a blue flame when burned. Weaving science, intuition, materiality and magical thinking through the formal language of abstraction and the materials of painting, this exhibition of new work presented at Lavit Gallery includes a floor-based painting on plywood and paintings on linen, alongside sulphur specimens kindly loaned by School of Biological Earth and Environmental Sciences, UCC.

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.

18/06/2026

WINES FOR SULPHUR

The four wines selected by Bubble Brothers for the opening reception of Sulphur, a solo exhibition by Orlan Whelan, which takes place this evening at 5.30-7.30pm. All welcome

Wines served at the opening reception Thursday 18 June 2026 of Sulphur, an exhibition of new work by visual artist Orla Whelan at the Lavit Gallery, Cork.

17/06/2026

OPENING TOMORROW EVENING

Sulphur | Orla Whelan
In collaboration with The Fold, art and geology research group
18 June – 11 July

Opening reception Thursday 18 June 5.30-7.30pm. Wine by Bubble Brothers
Artist talk, as part of The Fold Symposium, Saturday 04 July, 3pm

Sulphur is an exhibition of new work by visual artist Orla Whelan. Building on her longstanding interest in geology and colour, in 2025 Orla undertook research in collaboration with The Fold art and geology group, focusing on specimens of elemental sulphur from UCC's rock collection. Initially drawn to the intense colour, Orla's research interests deepened to include the invisible crystalline structure embedded within the rocks various outward formations, as well as its historical roles in alchemy, industry and astronomy. Representing the soul in alchemy, sulphur was considered to be one of the three primes (along with mercury and salt) from which all matter was comprised, and from which any material could be created. In addition to its transformative potential and intense array of yellows, the artist considers its hidden chromatic capacities - while lemon-yellow in solid form, sulphur becomes a molten red liquid and emits a blue flame when burned. Weaving science, intuition, materiality and magical thinking through the formal language of abstraction and the materials of painting, this exhibition of new work presented at Lavit Gallery includes a floor-based painting on plywood and paintings on linen, alongside sulphur specimens kindly loaned by UCC Geology Department.

The 2026 Lavit Gallery programme is kindly supported by Arts Grants from The Arts Council of Ireland and Cork City Council.