Temple Bar Gallery + Studios and Southwark Park Galleries select Emily Waszak for first international solo exhibition

Temple Bar Gallery + Studios (TBG+S), in partnership with Southwark Park Galleries (SPG) in London, has selected artist Emily Waszak for her first international solo exhibition. The invitation extends a collaboration that began with the group exhibition Faigh Amach at TBG+S and marks a new phase in a program designed to connect Irish-based practices with international platforms through curatorial dialogue and targeted institutional support.

From Faigh Amach to a solo invitation
_Faigh Amach—developed by TBG+S with Culture Ireland and SPG—was conceived to support an artist in presenting a first solo exhibition outside Ireland. The initiative brought together three practices selected through an open call: Ella Bertilsson, Kathy Tynan, and Emily Waszak. More than 350 applications were reviewed by SPG, TBG+S, and invited artist Niamh O’Malley before the final trio was chosen. The project’s structure allowed curators to observe each practice over time rather than making a one-off selection.

Curatorial process and criteria
Throughout the planning and run of Faigh Amach, SPG Director Judith Carlton and Deputy Director Charlotte Baker conducted a series of in-person and online studio visits with the participating artists, and later visited the exhibition at TBG+S. The curatorial engagement culminated in an invitation to Waszak to develop a solo presentation at SPG’s Lake Gallery. The decision followed sustained conversations about how the work addresses nature, identity, grief, landscape, materiality, and community.

Support package and professional development
The opportunity is jointly funded by TBG+S and Culture Ireland. It includes artist fees, travel and accommodation, and production costs, with SPG providing professional development opportunities as part of the engagement. Taken together, the financial and institutional backing is intended to provide a focused context in which the artist can work at greater scope and scale, with curatorial mentorship and the resources of an established London venue.

Practice overview
Waszak’s work draws on rituals within her Japanese cultural heritage, experiences of grief, and the landscape of her home in Donegal. For Faigh Amach, she presented delicate ceramics within an installation anchored by several large-scale weavings. The weavings combined discarded waste textiles gathered from industrial sites in Dublin with fabrics the artist has collected and kept for their personal significance. The material choices and methods articulate relationships between care and labor, memory and place, and between the hand-made and the systems that generate surplus and waste.

Artist perspective
Responding to the invitation, Waszak underscored both the opportunity and the urgency she feels in the studio. “I am absolutely delighted to have been offered this opportunity, and look forward to working with Judith and Charlotte who have been incredibly supportive and thoughtful about my work. As an older artist who is only in the early stages of my career, there is a keen sense of urgency in my work. This opportunity will push my practice forward at this critical juncture by focusing that energy and allowing me to be more ambitious in scope and scale. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has been involved in this process.”

Institutional views
TBG+S, SPG, and Culture Ireland congratulated Waszak on the selection and acknowledged the exceptional work of fellow Faigh Amach participants Ella Bertilsson and Kathy Tynan. SPG’s Judith Carlton described the forthcoming exhibition as an opening to the gallery’s spring program in the park and framed the selection as grounded in the work’s conversations with nature, identity, grief, landscape, materiality, and community. She also noted the difficulty of inviting just one artist from a strong trio and cited the value of Culture Ireland and TBG+S support in enabling deep engagement with each practice before making a decision.

Program context
Rather than a single open-call snapshot, SPG’s studio visits and exhibition visits were integral to understanding how each artist’s work might translate to a solo context. The process emphasized dialogue, observation, and fit between practice and venue. For Waszak, the Lake Gallery setting will offer an expanded platform to develop new work and to test installation strategies at larger scale.

A note on support for the sector
Temple Bar Gallery + Studios states that it is funded by The Arts Council of Ireland. Within this collaboration, the gallery’s partnership with Culture Ireland and SPG is focused on building international opportunities for artists connected to the Irish context, with an emphasis on sustained professional development alongside exhibition-making.

Timeline (dates disclosed per request)