Ultraviolet Art Talks

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to visual artist Alexa Müen in 2023.Alexa Müen is a synesthetic European conceptual artist and curator, She is based between Spain and the UK. Her art is a junction of interconnecting layers of emotion, spirituality, materiality, technology and traditional craft.Traditionally trained in Andalucía and Florence, Alexa was called to the materiality oil painting. "I loved how oil paint could be applied in transparent or opaque layers, in particular how glazing and colour interacted with light, how a poppy oil glaze could reflect light so strongly you couldn't see the colour it was glazing, hiding the truth under a veil of reflected light”.Moving from oil painting to light based work in 2017/18 was a natural progression, mixing both the craft of oil painting with programable LED lights and projection .The choice of materials add conceptual layers to the pieces, conveying a tension implicit in the interconnection of technology and nature, which is key in modern life.Her multimedia techniques and materials, range from painting in inks, encaustic wax, oil or acrylic paint,. Tapestry using organic hand woven wool yarn from a Welsh women's cooperative, referencing the historical hidden female artist who worked in embroidery on jute sacking cloth or linen canvas.. In contrast she also uses contemporary technological and industrial materials such as, acrylic panels, clear vinyl, aluminium, copper, insulation materials, motors, bike batteries, projectors, and the key material, the programmable colour changeable LED lights, which also have variable intensity of emission.Her installations are based around anthropological questions, delving into the psychology of personal relations versus society, what was valued, when and how, what is reviled or worshipped, what is hidden or revealed, rather then exploration of a particular medium.Enjoying the series? Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, follow Alexa Müen on Instagram @elegantpunk

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to Visual Artist Felipe Ikehara in 2023.**Please note this episode is entirely in Portuguese (Brazil) language. Watch the full episode with English Subtitles on Ultraviolet Art Talks Instagram** on this link:https://www.instagram.com/reel/CtG_bRIMkQK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==Born in 1987 in São Paulo, Felipe Ikehara is a visual artist who develops paintings on canvas, murals, and drawings, these being the processes manifested as his main artistic vehicles.The technical development of drawing and painting is combined with research into visual references from the nature of the world and the human being. Within a decidedly figurative work, particular and universal symbolisms structure the thematic pillars of the works. Simultaneously, rigidity and organicity are exalted through pastel tones to compose images that translate the sensation that emerges from a lapse in daily life and results in a moment of introspection.Selected recent works and shows include; commission work for @meta São Paulo @hon_magurobr show @diasporagalleria projects with @muraisspArtist Statement;“The choice of palette manifests itself in pastel tones and more muted colors as a counterpoint to the exacerbated saturation of daily life.In urban life, we become accustomed to surviving surrounded by glaring information in every synesthetic sense of the word. Sounds and noises exceed humanly acceptable decibel levels, people express themselves in an imposing and aggressive manner to be noticed, colors and movements explode in all the amplitude that the eye can reach.The saturation of everything around us is an indication of the anesthesia of the reception of being in addition to the uncontrolled need for recognition and manifestation.The way I present the colors and themes of my work is a desaturated manifesto, because I believe that, starting from the most static state, the smallest movements are highlighted.In a daily life where saturation prevails, I seek to illustrate a place of refuge where subtleties have value and strength. I present my work, for myself and whoever may receive it, as a reminder that there is a place where energy is not spent unnecessarily and its smallest manifestation can be recognized and contemplated.In our daily lives we do not lack colors, we lack perceiving the subtleties that exist between them.”Enjoyed this episode? Follow Ultraviolet Art talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, follow Felipe Ikehara on Instagram @fe.ikehara also @casa.meio

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Kat Lalor in 2023.Kat Lalor is a Queer Visual Artist, generating performative lens-based work concerned with the multi-facets of Queer intelligibility. Through drag, fiction, and language, they explore a navigation of the world as other. Drawing from subjective experience laced with threads of Queer theory and fiction, Lalor’s work is interested in moments of tension, choice and slippage.SHOWS2024 WAYSTATION, The Complex Gallery2023 193rd RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA Gallery2023 Gaffer-Tape, Phizzfest, Phibsboro Tower2022 RDS Visual Arts Award Exhibition, RDS2022 Graduate Exhibition, Technological University Dublin2021 Éalú, Virtual Exhibition and Printed Publication2020 (C)overt, Virtual Exhibition2020 Metamorphosis, Virtual Exhibition2019 Evocation of Entities, Temple Bar Gallery + StudiosAWARDS2025 WOWTE Residency Award, A4 Sounds2022 Fire Station Artist Studio’s Graduate Award2022 RDS Visual Art Award2022 Arts Council Agility AwardEnjoying the podcast? Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, follow Kat Lalor on Instagram @katlalor.va

Resuming Season 16, on this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Nuala O'Donovan in 2023 about her practice and her exquisite otherworldly sculptures.Nuala O'Donovan is an Irish Artist, living and working in Cork City on the south coast. She is a graduate of Middlesex University, U.K. and MTU, (Crawford College of Art and Design), Cork, Ireland.O'Donovan worked in design in the U.K., U.S.A. and Australia. She returned to Ireland where she taught design at MTU before returning to education to undertake an MA by research in the Ceramics Department at the Crawford college of Art and Design in Cork, completed in 2008.Her research area: Irregularities in Patterns in Nature & The Geometry of Natural Forms. Her artwork has been exhibited and published internationally, and she has been an invited speaker and teacher at workshops and International Conferences in Museums, Galleries and Universities.“My starting points are detailed drawings of plants, shells and seeds. In order that the form of the finished work is consistent with the qualities of the source material, I use a set of constraints based on a combination of regular and irregular geometric principles which are found in nature. I am interested in the history of the use of the geometry of natural forms in European art – in particular classical Greek art and architecture. I use these principles of Classical geometry when making decisions about the proportions of my work, and combine them with fractal or irregular geometry by using the principles of fractal geometry in the creation of the pattern. The form of the individual pattern is repeated in the outcome of the overall work – the “inherent design carried within itself”, so that each outcome is unique even if the starting point is similar. Each sculptural piece carries, within itself, its own narrative from the time during which it was made". __Nuala O'DonovanEnjoyed this episode? Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_ Follow, rate and comment!For more information, follow Nuala O'Donovan on Instagram @nualaodonovan

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Carl Hickey in 2023.Carl Hickey graduated with a BA in Fine Art specialising in Painting from NCAD in 2022, where he received The Dean Residency Award for his graduate show.Since graduating he has gone on to have two solo shows “In-Between Stops” in Liberty Ink (2022) and “Everything and Nothing” with gallery, Atelier Now (2023). He has published a book From the Top Deck of the Bus with Driftwood Editions (2023) and has featured in multiple group shows including “In the Press” with Hypha Studios in London (2025).He completed a residency with Cill Rialaig Arts in Co. Kerry, Ireland in 2025 and had his third show in The Horse Gallery in October 2025.Hickey’s work is almost a compilation of everyday situations and events – the chaotic and the organised.His work is an ode to the on-going rambles of life and he uses oil paint as his main tool to portray the city and suburbs and to convey his subjects – Dublin’s civilians and spaces – in a different context. Hickey also uses video and written work juxtaposed.Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, follow Carl Hickey on Instagram @carl.hickey_

Opening Season 16, a super special chat with CEO, Founder and Creative Director of Odyssey Studios Mark Maher in 2023.Mark Maher is CEO, Founder and Creative Director at Odyssey Studios, a State of the Art model making studio based in Limerick, Ireland and one of the largest permanent model making studios in Europe.The studio supplies blockbuster film and TV productions with miniature models, weapons, armour, props and prosthetic makeup.He has brought 17 years of international experience in the industry as a Concept, Lead or Head Model Maker to Odyssey Studios which he started to bring world class model making to the world.His credits include The Hobbit (The Battle of the Five Armies, The Desolation of Smaug and An Unexpected Journey), Alice Through the Looking Glass, Penny Dreadful, Into the Badlands, Wednesday series on Netflix to name a few.He can be seen building miniature cities, spaceships, Apes, Aliens, Zombies, Dinosaurs and more.Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, Follow Mark Maher on Instagram @markmahersculptor @odysseystudios.ie

Closing Season 15, a super high energy chat with Director, Programming and Educator at Irish Arts Center, Rachael Gilkey in 2023.Rachael Gilkey is a Director, Programming & Education at Irish Arts Center based in New York City, New York.Previously, Rachael was a Director, Communication, Education & Outreach at Irish Arts Center and also held positions at The Battery.Rachael received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Occidental College and a Master from University of Galway. She is also Committee Member at Bronx Book Festival. Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more Information, Follow Rachael Gilkey and Irish Arts Center on Instagram @rachaelusgilkinius @irishartscenter

On this episode, Caren Sullivan talks to artist Gary Farrelly from the super duo Office For Joint Administrative Intelligence in 2023.Office For Joint Administrative Intelligence O.J.A.I. is the co-authored practice of artists Chris Dreier and Gary Farrelly. It functions since 2015 as a hyperbolic bureaucratic para-intelligence agency operating between Brussels and Berlin. Drawing on obsessive research in the fields of corporate architecture, urban peripheries, tunnels, institutional power, and magic. Public manifestations of O.J.A.I. are performances, installations, publications, artefacts, and a radio show. Work by O.J.A.I. has been presented at Marres Centre for Contemporary Culture (Maastricht), Damien and the Love Guru (Brussels), Hugh Lane Gallery (Dublin), Contemporary Art Centre (Cincinnati), Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles (Paris), De Garage (Mechelen), Complex Arts Centre (Dublin), among many others.Recent projects;Administrative Embrace, an one-hour audio work commissioned by @radiophreniaglasgow. The transmission moves through tunnels, flyovers, debris fields, and rustbelt landscapes -encountering states of decline, delirium, and heroic obedience through modular sound, spoken word, sonic residue, and bureaucratic fiction (April 2025). Follow Ultraviolet Art Talks on Instagram @_ultravioletarttalks_For more information, follow O.J.A.I. on Instagram @jointintelligence @garry__farrelly @thegreencorridor.brussels