Mise en abyme
22 November 2025 – 31 January 2026
Golden Thread Gallery Belfast
Curated by Sarah McAvera
Originally commissioned and presented by Nora Hickey M’Schili Centre Culture Irlandais.
22 November 2025 – 31 January 2026
Golden Thread Gallery Belfast
Curated by Sarah McAvera
Originally commissioned and presented by Nora Hickey M’Schili Centre Culture Irlandais.
Golden Thread Gallery presents a new exhibition by artist Sharon Murphy, curated by Sarah McAvera.
Murphy draws from her background in theatre and influences from psychoanalysis and magic realism. Delving into theatrical settings, she captures moments of quiet and stillness. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.
Murphy constructs layered visual narratives that are both captivating and unsettling. Her photographs intentionally reference Freud’s concept of the ‘uncanny,’ where the familiar takes on a strange, eerie quality, underscoring the inherently performative aspects of looking and being observed.
This solo exhibition represents a pivotal development in Murphy’s recent practice, and an exciting opportunity to work with Golden Thread Gallery curator Sarah McAvera, merging conceptual ideas with intensified attention to the sculptural qualities of the photographic image. Real and imagined spaces merge, drawing the viewer into realms that are both tangible and metaphorical.
Further Details:
https://goldenthreadgallery.co.uk/event/mise-en-abyme-sharon-murphy/
Mise en Abyme is the third iteration of the exhibition, previously exhibited at the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris (curated by Nora Hickey M’Schili) and at Photo Museum Ireland (curated by Trish Lambe and Darren Campion). The exhibition at Golden Thread Gallery will include a new video work made in collaboration with Belfast photographer Simon Mills and dance artist Argyro Tsampazi.
With thanks to Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and Draiocht, Blanchardstown.
Murphy draws from her background in theatre and influences from psychoanalysis and magic realism. Delving into theatrical settings, she captures moments of quiet and stillness. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.
Murphy constructs layered visual narratives that are both captivating and unsettling. Her photographs intentionally reference Freud’s concept of the ‘uncanny,’ where the familiar takes on a strange, eerie quality, underscoring the inherently performative aspects of looking and being observed.
This solo exhibition represents a pivotal development in Murphy’s recent practice, and an exciting opportunity to work with Golden Thread Gallery curator Sarah McAvera, merging conceptual ideas with intensified attention to the sculptural qualities of the photographic image. Real and imagined spaces merge, drawing the viewer into realms that are both tangible and metaphorical.
Further Details:
https://goldenthreadgallery.co.uk/event/mise-en-abyme-sharon-murphy/
Mise en Abyme is the third iteration of the exhibition, previously exhibited at the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris (curated by Nora Hickey M’Schili) and at Photo Museum Ireland (curated by Trish Lambe and Darren Campion). The exhibition at Golden Thread Gallery will include a new video work made in collaboration with Belfast photographer Simon Mills and dance artist Argyro Tsampazi.
With thanks to Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris and Draiocht, Blanchardstown.
Insight into the Other
14 Nov 2025 – 21 Feb 2026
Uinversity Hall Gallery UMass Boston
Curated by Sam Toabe and Sarah McAvera.
14 Nov 2025 – 21 Feb 2026
Uinversity Hall Gallery UMass Boston
Curated by Sam Toabe and Sarah McAvera.
Insight into the Other is a group exhibition with artists: Ciara Finnegan, Sandra Johnston, Shiro Masuyama, Sharon Murphy, Sinéad O’Donnell, Peter Richards, Elvira Santamaría, and Una Walker
Do we find insight into ourselves in the artworks that we experience? Do we use them as a prompt to confirm our own values? Or, do we use them as proof of “otherness?” Has the meaning of “the other” changed in the current political and social climate? Do we use the concept of “the other” as a means of maintaining the status quo?
The selection of artworks for Insight into the Other will be drawn from the collection of the Golden Thread Gallery and focuses on those whose meanings change according to the time and space they are shown in. All blur boundaries around what they are and what they appear to be, or could be, based on its relationship to the experience of the viewer and vice versa. Some works will be restaged for the first time in many years, shown in alternative presentations that provoke the viewer into being part of the work, leading them to question what they are seeing and experiencing. The multitude of alternate readings undermine the stability of the viewing process and our sense of self and sense of the “other.”
The exhibition exchange will result in Insight into the Other at the University Hall Gallery curated by Golden Thread Gallery’s Co-Director Sarah McAvera in collaboration with our Gallery Director, Sam Toabe. This collaborative exchange will will overlap with a group exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast composed of studio art faculty, staff, and alumni from UMass Boston’s Art & Art History Department, opening in 2026.
Do we find insight into ourselves in the artworks that we experience? Do we use them as a prompt to confirm our own values? Or, do we use them as proof of “otherness?” Has the meaning of “the other” changed in the current political and social climate? Do we use the concept of “the other” as a means of maintaining the status quo?
The selection of artworks for Insight into the Other will be drawn from the collection of the Golden Thread Gallery and focuses on those whose meanings change according to the time and space they are shown in. All blur boundaries around what they are and what they appear to be, or could be, based on its relationship to the experience of the viewer and vice versa. Some works will be restaged for the first time in many years, shown in alternative presentations that provoke the viewer into being part of the work, leading them to question what they are seeing and experiencing. The multitude of alternate readings undermine the stability of the viewing process and our sense of self and sense of the “other.”
The exhibition exchange will result in Insight into the Other at the University Hall Gallery curated by Golden Thread Gallery’s Co-Director Sarah McAvera in collaboration with our Gallery Director, Sam Toabe. This collaborative exchange will will overlap with a group exhibition at the Golden Thread Gallery in Belfast composed of studio art faculty, staff, and alumni from UMass Boston’s Art & Art History Department, opening in 2026.
Mise en abyme
01 May – 29 June 2025
Photo Museum Ireland
Curated by Trish Lambe abd Darren Campion.
Originally commissioned and presented by Nora Hicket M’Schili Centre Culture Irlandais.
01 May – 29 June 2025
Photo Museum Ireland
Curated by Trish Lambe abd Darren Campion.
Originally commissioned and presented by Nora Hicket M’Schili Centre Culture Irlandais.
Photo Museum Ireland is delighted to present the Irish premiere of Sharon Murphy’s new body of work Mise en Abyme, which focuses on Parisian carousels and theatrical décor during moments of stillness and silence. Drawing on her background in theatre and informed by concepts from psychoanalysis and magic realism in literature, this new work highlights Murphy’s longstanding interest in staged spaces and the performative in photography.
Murphy uses this concept as a metaphor to investigate the boundaries between real and fictive spaces, concentrating on recurring motifs of theatre curtains, outdoor carousels, circus tents, performative sites, city parks and empty stages.
These scenes become the point of departure for a wider exploration of the tension between hidden and revealed, negative and positive, illusion and disillusion. This work addresses the essential nature of photographic seeing, performance, and Freud’s notion of the uncanny where the familiar becomes suddenly strange and disconcerting through a play between presence and absence, evoking both enchantment and a pang of unease.
This series marks a significant evolution in Murphy’s practice both conceptually and in terms of using the materiality of the photographic images, with an emphasis on the sculptural presence of the work, blurring the boundaries between real and represented space. The worlds implied or symbolised are both actual and potential, characterised by a capacity to juxtapose several spaces and instances of time and experience within one tangible space and where tropes of the mise en abyme – doubleness, reflexivity, repetition, mirroring – play out.
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Murphy uses this concept as a metaphor to investigate the boundaries between real and fictive spaces, concentrating on recurring motifs of theatre curtains, outdoor carousels, circus tents, performative sites, city parks and empty stages.
These scenes become the point of departure for a wider exploration of the tension between hidden and revealed, negative and positive, illusion and disillusion. This work addresses the essential nature of photographic seeing, performance, and Freud’s notion of the uncanny where the familiar becomes suddenly strange and disconcerting through a play between presence and absence, evoking both enchantment and a pang of unease.
This series marks a significant evolution in Murphy’s practice both conceptually and in terms of using the materiality of the photographic images, with an emphasis on the sculptural presence of the work, blurring the boundaries between real and represented space. The worlds implied or symbolised are both actual and potential, characterised by a capacity to juxtapose several spaces and instances of time and experience within one tangible space and where tropes of the mise en abyme – doubleness, reflexivity, repetition, mirroring – play out.
Individual Artist Awards 2025
Carlow County Council Artist Development Award
Carlow County Council Artist Development Award
I am delighted to be awarded a grant from Carlow County Council to support the development of new work in 2025 and am most grateful to the selectors and the Arts Office staff.
Mise en abyme
07 Nov – 20 Dec 2024
Centre Culturel Irlandais, Photo Saint Gerain, Paris Photo
Commissioned and Curated by Directrice, Nora Hickey M’Schilli.
07 Nov – 20 Dec 2024
Centre Culturel Irlandais, Photo Saint Gerain, Paris Photo
Commissioned and Curated by Directrice, Nora Hickey M’Schilli.
Sharon Murphy’s new body of work focuses on Parisian carousels and theatrical décor during their moments of stillness and silence. It stems from what the artist describes as a ‘longstanding interest in staged spaces and the performative in photography’. Inhabited by
inanimate painted horses, decorative frontispieces and drapery, these scenes become the point of departure for a wider exploration of fictive realism, the tension between hidden and revealed, negative and positive, illusion and disillusion. A mise en abyme of the practice of photography - itself a constructed fiction - and a delving into Freud’s notion of the uncanny, this exhibition at the Centre Culturel Irlandais evokes both enchantment and a pang of unease.
This special commission of photographic works is presented in association with Photo Museum Ireland.
inanimate painted horses, decorative frontispieces and drapery, these scenes become the point of departure for a wider exploration of fictive realism, the tension between hidden and revealed, negative and positive, illusion and disillusion. A mise en abyme of the practice of photography - itself a constructed fiction - and a delving into Freud’s notion of the uncanny, this exhibition at the Centre Culturel Irlandais evokes both enchantment and a pang of unease.
This special commission of photographic works is presented in association with Photo Museum Ireland.
