Mycelium Sanctuary | Sara K Dunn at Engage Art Studios
Exhibition launch 7th of August, 6-9pm
Engage Art Studios, Churchfields, Salthill.
The exhibition will run until August 16th, 2025.
Mycelium Sanctuary is an immersive exhibition by Sara K Dunn. The artworks and interactive installation are inspired by the expansive world of mycology. An ecosystem of art mediums, all unified through intricate details and greens, form the exhibition. Moving through drawing, printmaking, textiles, sculpture, and installation work, Dunn shares her love and devotion to the mycological world with the viewers. The exhibition will be open daily, from 12-6pm, except Tuesday, and the artist will be present in the space each day. This exhibition is presented as a culmination of the inaugural Graduate Studio Residency Award at Engage Art Studios.
The semi-sheltered sanctuary installation provides a space to sit, to think or to meet. Surfaces are covered with soft textiles and crochet ‘moss’ – all are touchable, encouraging tactile sensory experiences in the space. The branches that make up the structure are foraged from an Ash tree that fell during storm Éowyn in January 2025 on the Burren College of Art’s campus. This storm revealed how important community is in times of disaster, and crafting a canopy shelter with the fallen branches felt symbolic. Within this structure are artworks that take on fungi in multiple forms, hinting at their expansive nature. The ambient audio in the space is co-created between a mycelium block and Llewyn Màire, a dear friend of Sara’s, using a bio-feedback instrument.
Viewers are welcome to experiment with the carved mushroom blocks, ink pads, and provided paper to create new prints to add to the sanctuary by clipping them to the copper wires that extend from the porcelain forms on the walls, growing the mushroom community within the space. There are blank cards that visitors are welcome to print on then take home or send to someone in their life – encouraging relational connections. The mycelium webs that mushrooms grow from extend beyond themselves, connecting trees in old growth forests to allow them to communicate.
Newer works and experiments developed for this exhibition during her residency delve further into the expansive and ever-changing world of Mycology. These present in many smaller works in varied mediums.
Artist bio:
Sara K Dunn is a Galway City-based multimedia artist and queer mycologist who utilizes a wide range of mediums to share an appreciation of nature and how we are a part of it. Sara aims to convey her findings in her art in an engaging way through modifying traditional practices, essentially queering her processes.
Sara was awarded one of the inaugural Graduate Studio Residencies in Galway City in October 2025; funded by Galway City Council. She recently completed her MFA in Art and Ecology (2025) at the Burren College of Art in Clare, Ireland. She earned her BFA in Illustration (2017) from the Rhode Island School of Design, and lived in Providence, RI, US before coming to Ireland in 2023. She has exhibited extensively in the US up and down the East Coast and in recent years, has been included in group shows in Stockholm, Galway, Clare, Cork and Limerick in Ireland.