Eugene Conway: The Road Home: Butler Gallery, Kilkenny

As part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2026, Gormleys is delighted to present 'The Road Home', a new body of work by Eugene Conway, in conjunction with Butler Gallery. 

Eugene Conway (b. 1965) is one of Ireland’s leading realist landscape painters. Having moved to County Kilkenny as a child, he developed a deep connection to the rural environment, which continues to shape the subject matter of his work. 

Conway’s paintings focus on the landscapes of Kilkenny, capturing quiet, unassuming scenes of everyday rural life. Rather than depicting the picturesque, his work reflects a measured and observational approach, where colour and light are closely attuned to weather, season and the passage of time. His subjects — bridges, barns, walls and byways — become subtle studies of place, revealing the often-overlooked beauty of the Irish countryside. 

“A lot of the time they go unnoticed, but they are the essence of rural Ireland: old sheds, old walls, country roads, a wet ditch after the summer rain, or maybe the way the light is hitting something, bringing out a lovely pattern in it. But the light is at a certain point. If you come back an hour later, everything has changed.” 

Through this sensitivity to light and atmosphere, Conway’s work captures the quiet rhythms of rural existence, reflecting layers of history shaped by habitation and farming. 

Conway studied at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin and has exhibited regularly at the Royal Hibernian Academy since 1998. His work is held in major collections including the Haverty Trust, the Office of Public Works, ESB, and the Four Seasons Hotel Dublin.