Seanscéalta, Guthanna Beo: What Still Lives Here - Justine Guittonny-Cappelli

What to Expect

French artist Justine Guittonny-Cappelli, who is based in Ireland, brings a new body of painting to the Garage Theatre under the title Seanscéalta, Guthanna Beo: What Still Lives Here. The work draws on Irish mythology, but the artist is not illustrating the old stories so much as asking what survives of them. Her mythological figures are painted as bodies that move away from familiar categories, and the visual references are left deliberately ambiguous so that viewers arrive at their own reading rather than a fixed one.

Guittonny-Cappelli came to painting through history and anthropology, and that training shapes how she treats mythology: as a contemporary space rather than a historical artefact. The show opens on Wednesday 2 September with a launch evening. Complimentary wine and cheese are served from 6.30pm, and at 7pm Dr Lauren Cassidy, Teaching Fellow in English Literature at Mary Immaculate College, gives an introductory talk placing the paintings against the sources they draw on. The exhibition then stays up until 30 November, so anyone at the Garage for a play, concert or comedy night through the autumn can take it in before curtain up. Admission is free throughout. The gallery is part of a working theatre building, so viewing is tied to box office hours and performance times rather than set gallery hours, and a quick call ahead is the reliable way to check access on a given day.

Good to Know

• Runs Wednesday 2 September to Monday 30 November 2026
• Launch night Wednesday 2 September: wine and cheese from 6.30pm, talk at 7pm
• Venue: The Garage Theatre, Monaghan Education Campus, Armagh Road, Monaghan town
• Admission is free and no booking is needed for the exhibition itself
• Box office: 047 39777, Monday to Friday, 10am to 2pm

Getting There

The Garage Theatre sits on the Monaghan Education Campus off the Armagh Road on the eastern edge of Monaghan town, a short walk or a couple of minutes’ drive from Church Square. There is parking on the campus. Monaghan town is on the N2 Dublin to Derry road, with the N12 running east to Armagh and the N54 south to Cavan. Bus Éireann Expressway coaches on the Dublin to northwest corridor stop in the town centre.