25 April - 24 May 2026 | PV Sat, 25 April, 7-9pm

Opening 25 April, Disco Disorder presents a new body of oil paintings by Sheila Rennick that balance instinctive mark-making with deliberate control.

 Working primarily in thick, layered oil, Rennick begins her paintings with collages and loose sketches. She develops multiple works simultaneously, gradually building compositions that are theatrical, emotionally charged and materially rich.

The exhibition’s title emerged from listening to music in the studio — a constant presence in the artist’s process. Many works begin in a state of visual disorder, drawing from imagination, found imagery, social media, television and lived experience. Multiple scenes often develop at once, each competing for attention. What begins haphazardly is later reworked and refined; the tension between disorder and discipline becomes central to the finished paintings.

Autobiographical narratives run throughout the work. Scenes of motherhood, domestic disruption, small-town memory and economic anxiety unfold through heightened colour, warped perspective and sculptural paint. Interiors swell beyond proportion, figures distort, and ornamentation teeters between celebration and collapse.

Born in 1983 in Galway, Sheila Rennick has degrees in Fine Art Painting from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin and St. Martin’s College, London. She has recently completed the Turps Off Site Painting Programme 2023. In 2007 she was one of 30 selected for The Jerwood Contemporary Painting Prize. Sheila was awarded runner up in The Marmite Painting Prize 2016 and won the Moth Art Prize 2023. Sheila was selected for the John Moore’s Painting Prize 2025. Recent solo shows have included ‘Bang It Out’ at Kevin Kavanagh Dublin and ‘Neon Orchids’ at The Commonage, Bethnal Green, London. Recent group shows have included ‘Salted’ at the Lido Stores Margate, COMPOST’ at the Terrace Gallery London and ‘Magic and Loss’ at Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin.

Sheila’s work appears in many collections, including The Office of Public Works, Dublin; The Arts Council Ireland; Trinity College Dublin; and Country Bank, New York as well as many private collections.  She is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin and has exhibited extensively in Ireland, the UK and the USA. Sheila lives and works in London.