Overview
It Felt Like A Dream: Solo Exhibition by Asha Murray
126 Artist-Run Gallery presents It Felt Like A Dream, a solo exhibition by Asha Murray. The show brings together experimental film, wool tufted objects, collage, and sculpture, exploring identity, consumerism, memory, and the role of everyday objects. This exhibition traces Murray’s artistic progression to date, offering visitors an immersive encounter with her distinctive, multi-media practice.
About the Exhibition
Asha Murray’s practice examines narratives of contemporary life through a feminist perspective. She is inspired by the societal constructs interwoven within mundane everyday lives, objects, and domestic spaces. Her work considers object ontology, questioning the influence of objects on everyday life, as well as overconsumption, consumerism, and their impacts on identities, relationships, and the dynamics of the spaces we inhabit.
Murray draws attention to the mundane moments that often go unnoticed. She explores the subconscious realities that eventually bleed into our actuality, informing rituals and ways of being. Her main media are experimental film, sculpture, and wool tufting—a punch needle technique that creates soft textile sculptures, similar to carpet-making.
She creates experimental films in tandem with these diaristic textile works, combining them into non-linear, non-conventional storytelling. By interweaving visual and tactile media, Murray produces rhythmic collages of moving images and sounds, creating emotive engagement. The combination of playful 3D tufted objects with vivid, bright films forms unexpected and humorous perceptions, inviting viewers to consider how objects, memory, and consumer culture shape identity and experience.
About the Artist
Asha Murray graduated in 2023 from The Limerick School of Art & Design, TUS, with a First Class B.A. Degree in Sculpture and Combined Media. There she was honoured as TUS student of the year; was the first recipient of The TUS Travel Bursary Award; and was awarded a residency with the National Sculpture Factory. Selected as a finalist for the RDS Visual Artist Award, Asha’s work was exhibited in IMMA, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and was subsequently awarded the two-year RHA, Royal Hibernian Academy Graduate Residency prize. Since beginning the RHA residency, Asha has exhibited internationally with the Irish Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, with the Ireland’s Eye exhibition, and was an invited artist at the RHA Annual Exhibition 2024.
Asha held her first Solo Exhibition, ‘Dropped Frames,’ through the annual Parallax Emerging Film Artist Award, presented by Cork International Film Festival, the National Sculpture Factory and Sample Studios, to one promising graduate film artist nationally.
Asha is currently exhibiting in a group show in the RHA Main Gallery called ‘Key Learning from Cross-Market Synergetic Alignment’ running from February 12th to April 19th.
It Felt Like A Dream will be Asha’s second solo show taking place here in 126 Gallery, Galway, from the 4th of April, to the 29th of April.
Her work is held in private collections in Ireland and throughout Europe, and has been purchased by Highlanes Gallery, TUS (Technical University of the Shannon), as well as the OPW (Office for Public Works).
Exhibition Details
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 4 at 6pm
Exhibition Dates: April 4 – April 26
Gallery Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 12–6pm
Location: 126 Artist-Run Gallery, 15 St Bridget’s Pl, Galway, H91 NN29
Visitor Information
Visitors are invited to explore Murray’s combination of film, sculpture, and textile work in a gallery setting designed for close engagement. The exhibition is suitable for all audiences, with opportunities to experience the humour, vibrancy, and critical thought embedded in her work.
