Sorcha McNamara: The Weight of Air

What to Expect

The Weight of Air is a site-specific presentation built for the rooms at Custom House Studios rather than adapted to them. Sorcha McNamara works from materials first, and the show circles the idea of the frame: how something is held, regarded and positioned in a space, both literally and figuratively. Much of the work came out of her 2025 to 2026 residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios in Dublin.

McNamara’s practice takes discarded materials and rebuilds them into spatial compositions across painting, installation and sculptural assemblage, so the work sits somewhere between object and arrangement. She engages directly with the conditions of language, surface, physicality and embodiment, and the show carries an argument about craft, artistic manipulation, agency and value, all of which are live questions when the raw material started life as something thrown out. The exhibition is officially opened by Nuala Clarke at a reception on Thursday 13 August from 6pm to 8pm, and it shares the building and the dates with Tina O’Connell’s sculpture show Odysseys of Self.

Good to Know

• Runs Thursday 13 August to Sunday 13 September 2026
• Opening 6pm to 8pm, Thursday 13 August, opened by Nuala Clarke
• Custom House Studios + Gallery, The Quay, Westport
• Gallery hours: Monday to Friday 10am to 5pm, weekends and bank holidays 1pm to 4.30pm
• Admission is not listed online - phone 098 28735 or email info@customhousestudios.ie
• Shown alongside Odysseys of Self by Tina O’Connell
• Work developed during a residency at Fire Station Artists’ Studios, Dublin

Getting There

Custom House Studios sits on The Quay in Westport, roughly 2km west of the Octagon on the R335 towards Louisburgh. It is an easy walk or cycle from the town along the Quay road, and the Great Western Greenway passes close by. By car, Westport is reached on the N5 from Castlebar and Dublin or the N59 from Newport, Achill and Clifden. Irish Rail runs direct services from Dublin Heuston to Westport via Manulla Junction. Bus Eireann and Local Link serve the town, and a local bus runs down to the Quay. Public parking is available along the Quay itself.