Abel Shah
Collaborating since 2017, Abel Shah is an artist duo consisting of Alex Bell and Giulia Shah. Language and translation are core subjects in their practice - questioning the dissemination of knowledge and seeking alternative modes of communication. Through a poetic approach, they construct objects, texts, images, and sound that often manifest as multi-media installations, and build frameworks for dialogue and collaboration.
The relationships between image-object, physical-virtual, verbal-nonverbal, past-future, regeneration-decay are highly significant in their practice, reflecting the ongoing exchange and multitude of experiences that exist when making art as a non-singular artist. These are not thought of in binary or opposition, but as a constellation or dialectic diagram — where the tensions and flux of invisible structures/voids/the-in-betweeen blur notions of hierarchy and obstruct linear readability.
As a duo, collaboration and the idea of the host—holding space for others’ thoughts—are constantly present in their ways of working. Since 2018, they have been running Residency 11:11 from their home in London, a queer-run initiative reflecting their ambitions to find alternative forms of exchange. Their work has been shown at Tate Modern, Gallery Eenwerk, The Newbridge Project and The Corinium Museum.
“Reality shifts, spaced between future, present and past.
Cut through steel, the edges of the world
imprinted, to leave the beginning behind;
embossed, held still, framed in place — this place (remember).
Exposing the moments marked by dust and rust.
Layers of erosion on skin, on land, on
those other containers of life we seek;
in and out, collaborate, to contaminate — tied by the sands of time.”
Zoology & Marine Biology Museum
Ryan Institute, University of Galway
Galway H91 FN8X
Access
Wheelchair accessible venue
Accessible toilets
Accessible parking (Quadrangle Building)
Seating provided
Opening Times
8-23 November 2025
Mon-Sun 12-6pm
Getting There
10-minute walk from Eyre Sq.
Bus: stop 523031 University Road
Paid parking nearby
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Strange lands still bear common ground
Curated by Beulah Ezeugo
7-23 November 2025
Galway, Ireland
Shift, Tilt, 2025, Oak frame, glass, steel embossing on paper, volcanic sand (collected by the artist’s mother from Basilicata, in southern Italy and sent by post to London. Photo: Jonathan Sammon