DCCI presents a series of pieces by seven artisans from Ireland who are championing the Irish craft and design industry.

Noel Donnellan – Ceramics

For over two decades, he has immersed himself in the art of decorative craftsmanship, leaving his mark on historic monuments, medieval castles, private châteaux, and luxurious hotels across Europe. From delicate gold leaf applications to intricate bas relief sculptures, each project has been a labour of love, blending tradition with innovation.

In 2016, he co-founded PIGMENTTI, driven by a shared vision to redefine artisanal decoration. Working alongside talented designers and architects, he has learned to marry his mechanical engineering background with his artistic instincts, ensuring that every detail is meticulously crafted and thoughtfully executed.

Amidst the serene landscapes of rural Limerick, he found solace and inspiration in his home-based studio. Here, surrounded by the untamed beauty of the Irish countryside, he discovered a newfound passion for ceramics, exploring the elemental forces of clay and fire with a sense of wonder and curiosity.

As a 49-year-old artist, husband, and father, he is reminded daily of the legacy he is building for his two young boys. His art is more than just a profession; it is a reflection of his journey, his values, and his commitment to leaving the world a little more beautiful than he found it.

Helen O’Shea – Multimedia Sculpture

Helen O’Shea is an Irish based artist who has exhibited internationally. She has developed a practice of sculptural making that directly engages with issues of waste and recycling. Through
the reuse of existing materials, she creates forms that mimic the natural world and engage our relationship to it.

After exploring Creative Textiles and Fine Art Textiles, O’Shea attained a degree in Contemporary Applied Art in 2017, and MA by Research, from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design 2021, where she focussed on new narratives for waste. Since graduating O’Shea has exhibited widely in London with Ting-Ying Gallery, as part of Collect Art Fair with DCCI, and in the Venetian Homo Faber 2022, also Maestros del Futuro in Castillo de San Jorge Seville
2023, and Révélations 2023 Paris with the World Craft Council of Europe and in Objects of Contemplation with Make Hauser & Wirth London 2024.

Helen O’Shea’s art practice researches the journey of waste plastics in the sea and challenges our anthropological perceptions of the deep underworld. O’Shea’s primary material is found plastic
from local beaches and collected recyclables, she reimagines this harmful debris and creates creatures reminiscent of marine life. The process begins with gleaning throwaway plastics, mulling their material qualities and exploring their potential forms; it is an enquiry that is led by the trust of ‘making through doing’. O’Shea uses techniques and equipment synonymous with fibre and textile arts – the sewing machine, tacking pins, embroidery threads – and boldly takes ownership of plastic waste materials.

O’Shea’s work is an act of disobedience, treasuring discarded waste and treating it as a medium of resistance that makes a direct statement about the ecological damage it causes. The material,
touched by the hand and speculatively reinterpreted, lures the capacity to respond and take responsibility. Donna Harraway talks about the futile hope of imagining a different future, free of
environmental disaster, but calls for the imminent necessity to commit to the trouble of the present, to stick with it, own our current conditions rather than spiral to apocalyptic doom! There must be a drive to understand our relationship with the natural world as a multispecies alliance and a sprawling kinship.

Michael Murphy – Sculptor

Michael Murphy is a woodturner and sculptor working under the alias Non Violent Cutlery. His practice is rooted in the use of traditional tooling but aims to produce modern and innovative forms in both furniture and sculpture. Much of his sculptural work aims to draw
connections between the natural world and social and cultural issues affecting his homeland of Ireland.

Edwyn James Hickey – Furniture Making

Edwyn is an Irish designer and architect, originally from Limerick and now based in Ashford, Wicklow. In 2016, he co-founded Magnaparte Ltd, a design and visualisation practice specialising in architecture and 3D visualisation. Through Magnaparte, he merges creative design with cutting-edge visualisation techniques to deliver innovative and sustainable solutions for the built environment.

He holds a Bachelor of Honours in Architecture from the Dublin School of Architecture (Technical University of Dublin) and spent a year at MIT as part of his education. In 2013, his thesis work was recognised with the AAI (Architectural Association of Ireland) Maurice Craig Award.

In 2020, Edwyn was honoured to represent Ireland at Maison&Objet, an international showcase of design excellence. Most recently, he was awarded the Future Makers Award 2024 by the Design & Crafts Council Ireland, recognising his commitment to innovation in design. Additionally, he was proud to be shortlisted for the prestigious IDI Awards 2024, reflecting his focus on creating thoughtful and impactful work in architecture and design. His work has also been featured in The Irish Times, where his passion for Valentia Slate was highlighted.

Cecilia Moore – Metalwork

Cecilia Moore is an artist living and working in Dublin, Ireland. She works in metal combining techniques from her training in silversmithing, dinanderie and sculpture to create colourful, playful
metal sculptural pieces. She studied silversmithing in Birmingham, dinanderie in Paris, returning to Dublin to study traditional sculptural methods and materials, but always returning to metal in recent years she completed a masters in metal design.

Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally including London, New York, Munich, and the World Fair in Dubai. Her pieces have been purchased by the Irish State Collection, The National Museum of Ireland, The Ulster Museum, and international private collectors. She has won several public art sculptural commissions in Dublin. Ateliers d’Art interviewed Cecilia about her work for their February-March magazine in 2024.

Jennifer Hickey – Ceramics

Jennifer is a porcelain sculptor who lives in Mayo on the west coast of Ireland. She creates her sculpture from thousands of tiny, wafer thin porcelain pieces sewn on to tulle. Each porcelain piece is made by hand and the surface and texture differs from piece to piece.

The natural properties of porcelain are intrinsic to her sculpture. She is drawn to the ethereal and delicate properties of porcelain.
‘Living in the beauty and isolation of the west of Ireland has had an important impact on my work and allows me to observe and appreciate the continuing influence of the seasons’ ‘My sculpture investigates the rhythms and movement of nature and my relationship with it.

The fragility, translucency and ephemerality of the natural environment are central themes in my work’ ‘It can take months to complete a piece, but it is this slowness, repetition and ritual of making that are essential to my work’ Her work is held in private and public collections including The National Museum of Ireland and the Office of Public Works in Ireland.

She has exhibited widely throughout Ireland and Internationally and was selected to represent Ireland in the European prize for applied arts in Belgium in 2021 and also in the Dubai Expo 2020. Recent exhibitions include Salon Art & Design in New York 2024.

Alan Meredith – Woodwork

Alan began working with wood from an early age, his work to date straddles the boundaries of contemporary craft, sculpture and architecture and has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Graduating with a Masters in Architecture from
University College Dublin in September 2015, Alan currently works from his studio in County Laois, Ireland, imagining and creating one of a kind and speculative pieces for both public and private clients. Completed projects include; one of a kind furniture, public space design, and a collection of sculptural wood-turned vessels.

Alan’s most recent work is primarily interested in finding the appropriate form for each object while attempting to reveal the inherent properties of wood. The techniques employed are an intrinsic part of the form finding process while the making is seen as a reflective journey. The work is made in series which allows ideas to be developed and refined.

Recent Awards include; The Golden Fleece – Special Award 2023, while Alan’s work was Exhibited at ‘Collect 2024’ – The Leading International Fair for Contemporary Craft and Design, London and at ‘Salon’, Park Avenue Armory, NYC 2024. Alan had his first
solo exhibition in Ireland; ’’Quercu’’ at Lavit Gallery, Cork in March/April 2024. His work is stocked in numerous galleries in Europe and the United States and Alan is a member of the Homo Faber Guide. Current projects in the studio include the exhibition
build for the Irish pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025.