Press Release: The Hunt Museum Launches the Inaugural Hunt Open Submission Exhibition This December
28 November, 2025
28, November 2025 – The Hunt Museum is delighted to announce the opening of its first-ever Hunt Open Submission Exhibition, a landmark event celebrating contemporary Irish and International art.
Opening to the public on Friday, 5th December 2025 this exhibition marks a significant new chapter in the museum’s commitment to supporting Irish artists, while inviting both new and returning visitors to engage with the vibrancy of Ireland’s contemporary art scene within the museum’s historic setting.
The Hunt Open Submission Exhibition forms part of the museum’s wider strategy to champion the work of living artists and strengthen connections between the museum’s permanent collection and the cultural landscape of today. The exhibition provides a new platform for artists to showcase their work in a public museum space, reinforcing the Hunt Museum’s role as an open and inclusive hub for creativity, community, and conversation.
In its first ever year, the Hunt Open Submission received an outstanding response from artists nationwide, with 210 works selected for exhibition through a competitive, peer judging process. Visitors can look forward to an exciting variety of artworks spanning painting, sculpture, mixed media, and digital forms. Among the talented artists selected to exhibit are established Limerick painters Robert Ryan and Tom Prendergast, emerging artists Tina O’Connell, Heather Hughes and Ciara Connolly, RHA members such as Blaise Smith, exciting new talent Olga Anacka, an international returnee – Ireland 3000, and the iconic Robert Ballagh, alongside many other exceptional voices from across Ireland’s artistic community.
In addition to the main exhibition, four special awards, honouring dedicated friends and contributors to the museum, will be presented to recognise outstanding artistic achievement, originality, and contribution to contemporary Irish art.
“The Hunt Open Submission represents a renewal of our commitment to art as a shared, community experience. It brings together a diverse range of voices and visions, reflecting the energy and imagination of today’s Ireland.” .
Teresa Crowley, CEO and Director of the Hunt Museum.
The exhibition will run from 5th December, 2025 to 28th February, 2026. Visitors are invited to experience a dynamic showcase of artistic expression that celebrates Ireland’s diverse creative spirit. The Open Submission exhibition can be accessed free of charge, museum collection is a paid experience.
ENDS
Kiss by Heather Hughes
Gubeen by Blaise Smith
Awakening by Robert Ryan
Venus by Olga Anacka
Self-portrait after heart failure by Robert Ballagh
Self portrait -Not Me, Us by Tom Prendergast
For more information, or media requests please contact:
Cairell Ryan
Marketing Manager,
Hunt Museum
061 312833
About the Hunt Museum:
The Hunt Museum exhibits one of Ireland’s greatest private collections of Art and Antiquities, dating from the Neolithic Period to the 20th century. Collected by the dedicated antiquarians Gertrude and John Hunt, this remarkable collection comprises more than 2,500 diverse objects. The museum serves as a cultural hub, featuring a wide range of historical objects, jewellery, decorative arts and works by renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso and Jack. B Yeats. The museum serves as a cultural hub, holding the collection in trust for the people of Limerick and offering visitors a rich exploration of art and history.
About the artists:
Olga Anacka
Olga Anacka is a migrant conceptual artist working in mixed media from her Newbridge studio. Born in 1977 in Poland, she graduated from University of the Arts in Poznan in 2004. A year later, she won a distinction in Olsztyn Art Biennial for the metal and clay installation, part of Sacred Landscapes series.
Robert Ballagh
Robert Ballagh, an Irish painter and designer, is credited with introducing Pop Art to Ireland. His work spans set design, Irish Punt banknotes, stamps, and portraits of notable figures. Representing Ireland at the 1969 Paris Biennale, his paintings feature in public collections. He is an Aosdána member and Institute president.
Blaise Smith
Blaise Smith RHA, based in Kilkenny, is a figurative painter skilled in realistic landscapes, portraits, and still lifes. Believing in the lasting power of oil painting, he aims to capture Ireland as a visual record for future generations, much like we admire Holbein’s works from 1519 today.
Ciara Connolly
Since graduating with first-class honours in Textile Design, Ciara Connolly explores heritage, biodiversity, and place. By sharing her process, sketches, and experiments, she invites viewers to engage with and complete her work. Her role as an educator enhances the audience’s understanding and experience of her art.
Heather Hughes
Heather graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 2024 with a first-class honours BA in Fine Art. She is a multidisciplinary artist working in a wide range of mediums including painting, moving image, and installation art.
Ireland 3000
“Ireland 3000” is the Dadaist alter-ego of Irish artist Brain O’Shea. He creates large-scale, brightly coloured wood block prints using a jigsaw to carve the figures, which are then hand-printed without a press. O’Shea uses this persona to explore his views on Christianity, Irish culture, and nationalism through his art.
Tina O’Connell
Tina O’Connell is a North Clare-based visual artist working in sculpture and performance. A graduate of LSAD, her practice explores motherhood, memory, and identity through storytelling, humour, and material experimentation, using wood, concrete, and mixed media to create narrative-driven works reflecting the complexities of domestic and family life.
Tom Prendergast
Tom, a 2007 LSAD graduate, presents Not Me, Us., showcasing twenty years of artistic practice. The exhibition includes his daily paintings, portraits, still lifes, collages, and cut-outs, alongside personal objects, trinkets, and artworks by others from his collection, reflecting his creative world and the connections that inspire it.
Robert Ryan
Born in County Limerick, Robert Ryan graduated from Limerick School of Art and Design in 1987. He worked in Copenhagen and London before returning to Ireland in 1994.
In Ireland, Ryan’s work is viewed as somewhat unique. Referencing post-modern, it borrows qualities from European old masters, using traditional characteristics in a modern context.
