Chris Finnegan is a visual artist and arts educator from Cork City, working across photography, sculpture and participatory practices. 

Recently moved back to Ireland after a decade in the UK, his practice centres on the home and suburbia; critically interrogating ideas of home-making, childhood and the domestic sublime.  He regularly collaborates with his young sons and incorporates games and play-strategies in his image and exhibition making.

Solo exhibitions include Someone Else’s Somewhere at the Mills Centre, London in 2015,  House Rules at 6 Central Avenue in 2022 and The Grammar of Home at Galway City Library in 2024.  In 2023 his photographic series House Rules was published by PhotoIreland as a TLP Edition.  Also in 2023, his photobook, Suburban Fantastic, shot in Cork City’s western suburbs, was published by Biscuit Books  

Residencies include Open Residency at Cow House Studios Wexford and Sample-Studios Summer Residency 2024 at Cork College of Further Education and Training.  He received an Agility Award from the Arts Council Ireland in 2023 and was one of 5 photographers selected to represent Ireland at FUTURES 2024.  He is a member of the this/OUR artist collective who were recently awarded the Arts Council’s Arts Participation Project Award. 

Chris is an Associate Artist with Helium Arts providing workshops on their Cork City community programme.   He has recently facilitated arts projects with CoAction West Cork, KID FUTURE LAB (USA), and Cork County Council.  Collaborative youth projects in 2024 include: Big Listening, a school-based STEAM programme at the National Space Centre; Macromania or Sharks, no. Towers, a May Sunday Festival exhibition at Greywood Arts; and FrameWorks with Dripsey N.S.
Chris holds a BA Fine Art from TUD, Dublin and a Masters in Photography from Falmouth University.

Solo Exhibitions

2024

  • The Grammar of Home, Galway City Library, Galway.

2022

  • House Rules, 6 Central Avenue, Bishopstown, Cork, Ireland (PhotoIreland Festival Open Programme)

2015

  • Someone Else’s Somewhere, The Mills Centre, Highgate, London.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2025 

  • The Grammar of Home, with Colette Cronin and Síomha Callanan, Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Cork. Feb-April 2025.

2024

  • Samplelysium, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, Wales.
  • STAMP Festival Exhibition, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.
  • Ardgillan Summer Exhibition, Ardgillan Gallery, Dublin.
  • Sample-Studio Members Summer Exhibition, Cork, Ireland. 
  • On the Irish Photobook, Photobook/NZ Festival, New Zealand.
  • BOP Photobook Fair, BOP, Bristol, UK.
  • Halftone Print Fair, The Library Project, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Made by Hands, LHQ, Cork County Library, Cork, Ireland.

2023

  • Displacement and Belonging - Home, Rua Red, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Preamble, Uillinn: West Cork Arts Center, Skibbereen, Ireland.
  • Sample-Studio Members Summer Exhibition, Cork, Ireland.
  • Halftone Print Fair, The Library Project, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Dublin Art Book Fair, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Small Things Like These, LHQ Gallery, Cork, Ireland
  • Cork Zine Fest, MTU Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland.

2022

  • Halftone Print Fair, The Library Project, Dublin, Ireland.
  • In the Offing, Institute of Photography, Falmouth University, Penryn, UK. 
  • 192nd RHA Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Invited artist, Switch 2022, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.

2013-21

  • Switch 2021, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
  • Switch 2018 (Tenth Anniversary Edition), Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
  • Work, The Mills Centre, Highgate, London 2016.
  • DesignFest Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland 2015.
  • Dublin Art Book Fair 2013, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland.

2012

  • Your Public Art, GoMA, Glasgow, Scotland.
  • Glasgow International Artists Book Fair, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Scotland.
  • Lost Properties, Fringe Arts Bath, Bath, Somerset, England.

2010

  • End of Shadows, Sycamore Arts Club, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Bizarre Bazaar, Pallas Contemporary Projects, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Snap to Grid, L.A. Centre for Digital Art, Los Angeles, California, USA.
  • To Come So Far For Beauty, Block T, Smithfield, Dublin, Ireland.
  • Summer Show 2010, Rua Red, South Dublin Arts Centre, Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland.

2009

  • Switch 2009, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary, Ireland.
  • Summer Light/Winter Light, Samhlaíocht Gallery, Tralee, Co Kerry, Ireland.

2006

  • Enniskillen Arts Festival, Visual Arts Open, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
  • Graduate Show 2006, Dublin Institute of Technology, School of Fine Art, Dublin, Ireland.
  • RockCandy, Mischief, South William St. Dublin, Ireland.

Community and Social Engagement

  • this/OUR Deep mapping project, Killeagh, Cork 2025
  • PlaySpaces, Cork Midsummer Festival 2025
  • Make or Break - Creative Lunchtime programme, Cork and Kerry Co. Councils (ongoing)
  • SpaceFest Schools Programme2024, National Space Centre, Cork
  • Cruinniú na nÓg 2024, Greywood Arts (with KID FUTURE LAB), Cork
  • Associate Artist, Helium Arts Cork City Community Programme 2023-Present
  • Visual Art Zoom Workshop Volunteer, CoAction, West Cork, 2022.
  • Assistant to Visual Arts Programme, The Ark, Dublin, 2010.

Publications

  • House Rules, TLP Editions, Published by PhotoIreland, 2022.  Available here
  • Stir The Pot, Overlapse Books, 2023 (upcoming)

Collections 

  • Dublin Institute of Technology
  • Gallery of Modern Art , Glasgow
  • PhotoMuseum Ireland
  • PhotoIreland
  • National Irish Visual Arts Library(NIVAL)

Awards

  • The Arts Council Participation Project Award 2025 (with the this/OUR Project)
  • Cork County Council Arts Award 2025 (with the this/OUR Project)
  • The Arts Council Agility Award  2023

Curating

  • Member of Curatorial Panel for Switch 2010 & 2012, Nenagh, Co Tipperary & Bangor, Co Down.