Razing clears the way for true transformation
This exhibition brings together sculptural works from 2022 and paintings created in 2025. Together, for Hewson, they bookend a challenging time of creative block, a subsequent disintegration of ego and identity and a journey back to a different self with renewed energy and vitality.
Here, the ‘container’ is the self – a form that holds our identity through our beliefs, and experiences. This container is deliberately broken down, making space for release and change. Rather than signalling loss, this act of razing becomes a necessary clearing, proposing that true transformation and liberation comes from the collapse of inherited and self- imposed structures about who we are and who we should be.
The earlier sculptures are assured and stable, reflecting a self that once felt resolved. In contrast, the paintings document a more physical and emotional process of rebuilding. Irregular blocks and container-like forms appear fragmented, unstable, or only partially formed reflecting emotional disorganization and a struggle for control. Heavy lines suggest boundaries, and desire for structure, while overlapping shapes blur these lines, suggesting movement, tension, and growth within inner conflict yet to be settled.
This introspective painting practice documents the acquiescence and renewing process of Hewson’s identity.
When we look at the body of paintings together, it could be suggested that the blocks and containers are in fact breadcrumbs on a path, affirming the way back to a connection with the self, yet hinting at one that continues to unfold indefinitely.
‘Raze the Container: Redux’ mirrors the turning of the season, where what is shed makes space for regrowth: the return of warmth, light and abundance with Bealtaine, after a period of quiet release and inward renewal.
In this context, the exhibition becomes a passage: from contraction to expansion, from fragmentation to integration. Bealtaine means “Fierce Fire”. Fire is a transformational energy, it can burn away what no longer serves and ignite what lies dormant. It is both destructive and creative, a force that purifies, catalyses and renews, making fertile ground for new growth. What emerges is not a restoration of the former self, but a rebuilt identity, more embodied and vibrant.
These works carry the Bealtaine spirit of engagement. They step outward. They risk visibility. They speak to the courage required to bloom after collapse and to emerge into the full vitality of life.
‘Redux’ is an installment of an original body of work, ‘Raze the Container’ which was previously exhibited at Chateau La Coste in France in September 2025
Opening Night in partnership with Hennessy: Thurs 7th May, 6pm – 9pm
IMMERSION Weekend: 2nd – 4th May
Exhibition: May 2nd – June 5th
Gallery Opening Hours
Mon – Wed: 9am – 5pm
Thurs + Fri: 9am – 7pm
Sat: 9am – 1pm
Sun: 10am – 1pm & 6pm – 8pm
Leah Hewson
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), and The Centre Culterel Irlandais, Paris in (2026).
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 has created multimedia installations for The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Beyond the Pale, Art on Paper Fair, New York and Fidelity Investments.
Artist Statement:
The unconscious mind is a reservoir of our experiences, ideas and images. This hidden realm not only forms the foundation of our individual characters, thinking patterns, and behaviours that make up 95% of brain activity, but it also connects us as humans on a deeper level through our collective unconscious.
I am on a quest to explore this subliminal space, taking an introspective journey to excavate the self. I want to find liberation through expression that is free from social construct and aesthetic expectation. To explore this space, I draw inspiration from the Jungian theory, Process of Individuation. I find ways to access the unconscious through various means of finding a state of flow, like meditation, automatic writing and body movement. In the studio, I adopt an impulsive and instinctive relationship to colour, materials, and techniques, remaining open to any possibility. I listen to monotonous repetitive music through headphones and work on multiple pieces at once in order to let go of control or expectation of outcome.
The work generally begins with pure abstract movement, and continues to dance between unconscious expressive marks and conscious symbols and forms. This abstract vocabulary of complex yet playful layers emerge through geometric patterns and grids that transcend the constraints of space and time on the canvas.
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 various mediums 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.
