Anna Spearman: New Work

What to Expect

Anna Spearman’s New Work brings together painting, painted objects and animations that have all come out of the same ongoing research into paint as both material and process. The work is abstract, and it starts from visual and sensory information she picks up in the course of an ordinary day rather than from a subject chosen in advance. The animations are the element that makes the show unusual for a regional gallery: paint handled as something that moves and changes rather than something fixed on a stretcher.

Spearman describes her approach as playful and intuitive, which produces open ended and sometimes surprising outcomes, and the exhibition is built to let those outcomes sit beside each other rather than resolve into a single statement. She is originally from Dublin, is now based in County Sligo, and holds degrees from ATU Sligo and Falmouth University. She has completed several residencies and her work is held in the Arts Council collection. The show runs for seven weeks in the gallery at Ballina Arts Centre and shares those dates with Blawnin Clancy’s The Dark Seam, so one visit covers both. Admission is free.

Good to Know

• Runs Saturday 17 October 2026 to Saturday 5 December 2026
• Ballina Arts Centre, Barrett Street, Ballina, F26 NW83
• Gallery open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 6pm
• Free admission and no booking required
• Showing at the same time as The Dark Seam by Blawnin Clancy
• Box office Tuesday to Saturday 2pm to 6pm, phone 096 73593

Getting There

Ballina Arts Centre sits on Barrett Street in the town centre, minutes from the Moy bridge. By car, the N26 comes from Swinford and Foxford, the N58 from Castlebar, and the N59 from Crossmolina to the west and Sligo to the east. Irish Rail runs Dublin Heuston to Ballina services via Manulla Junction, and the station is about a ten minute walk away. Bus Eireann serves Ballina from Castlebar, Sligo, Galway and Dublin. Pay-and-display street parking is available on and around Barrett Street, with larger car parks a short walk from the door.