Her pieces tell a unique local story.

And now a new audience of art lovers are enjoying the magical glass sculptures of Cork artist Barbara Kenneally as part of the Cluster London virtual art fair.

The event, known as a no-nonsense art fair that cuts out “gallery middle men” and supports artists directly, was scheduled to take place at the Ugly Duck gallery space in London, but Covid-19 restrictions have meant the work of 100 contemporary artists will now be shown online.

Having retired from science, Barbara graduated with a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Applied Art, Ceramics, Glass and Textiles from CIT Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork in 2016, receiving awards for both her photography and glass sculptures.

Since graduating, her work has been selected for exhibitions in many galleries in Ireland and she has been commissioned for both public and private projects.

In her current practice she uses rocks found at the abandoned copper mines of Allihies on the Beara Peninsula of West Cork to create the form of each unique cast glass sculpture. She selects the colours from the palette documented by her photographs.

“Coming from a background of medical science, the transparency of glass allows for exploration of the surface and the subsurface, a very significant aspect to my work.” the artist says of her work.

“Looking at and beneath the surface translates into all aspects of life.”

A limited number of pieces are available for sale at the exhibition, including ‘Beneath’ (pictured above, £500) and ‘Beagainín’, a cast glass piece made with copper oxide (£300).

“She often chooses to work with negative spaces. The void forms tell the stories here as we are reminded of the toils of the miners,” says Cluster London.

“The transparency of glass allows for exploration of the surface and the subsurface at the same time. This is a very significant aspect of her work. As in life itself, different hues are apparent under varying illuminations. One is not always able, or permitted, to see all at the one instant.”

You can check out Barbara’s Cluster London exhibition here.