8th January - 7th February 2026
Accompanying Text Written by Martin Shiels
Kevin Kavanagh presents Urban Myth, a group exhibition of photography by gallery and invited artists. These artists demonstrate the changing role of photographs in our digital world. No longer just records of the real or of a moment in time, they have become the basis of our modern folklore. Where once we gathered round the fire to share stories, now we pass images from screen to screen. For all the solidity of the phone in our hand, these images flow by in a turbulent stream.
As urban myths, this folklore permeates every aspect of our daily lives. They are an articulation of our fears and insecurities, an attempt to put order on an increasingly chaotic world, and a measure of the society we think we live in. As short videos and memes, they are the driving force behind much social media. Increasingly, they dictate the direction of populist politics and of society itself.
In Urban Myth the photographers become storytellers. The stories they tell grapple with the underlying drivers of our new digital urban lives. They reflect our desires and our fears in a world of isolated individuals cut off from their natural roots and struggling with the unknown.
As information becomes less reliable, the perceived unknown becomes more threatening. There may be monsters here, but what are they? Scott Nokia records traces of some strange mechanical beast – tracks in the mud and flickering lights in the mist. An unfamiliar metal object is examined by Sean Lynch. Its purpose is unclear. It may just be discarded junk, or maybe not. The unknown becomes distinctly disconcerting in Adrian O’Carroll’s photographs. A parked car’s headlights are shining like searchlights seeking out the viewer. An empty road undulates across the hills as if alive. Even a rabbit becomes disturbing, reflecting how disconnected we have become from the natural world.
This modern unease with nature recurs throughout the exhibition. Gary Coyle taps into our enduring fear of the forest, itself the source of many myths that predate our urban society. In Izabela Szczutkowska’s photographs, nature encroaches in dream-like compositions. Devoid of people, plants reclaim our concrete world. Elaine Byrne crystallises a sense of impending doom. People loiter in artificial pools beside a raging sea. They appear as unaware of each other as they are of the waves that are about to wash them away.
The sense of isolation, whether alone or in company, is increasingly common in this digitally connected world. Cloaked in a mysterious blue, camouflaged against screen or sky, a lone figure runs away from Dragana Jurišić. Bringing us to the source of our urban myths, Michael Boran focuses his gaze on an empty house. In the end it is just us. At home with only a screen.
