Guggi Screening | TULCA Gallery
As part of the TULCA 2026 programme, TULCA presents a screening of Guggi (2026), directed by Ian Thuillier. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Guggi and film producer Gabriella Janni.
An intimate portrait of Irish artist Guggi from his anarchic days in 1980s Dublin with post-punk, boundary-pushing legends Virgin Prunes to his quiet life as a contemporary painter dedicated to the pursuit of beauty and the creation of paintings and forms that radiate calm.
Director: Ian Thuillier
Producer: Gabriella Janni
Distributor: Wildcard
Guggi
An artist working with drawing, painting and sculpture, Guggi digs deep into a personal yet universal subject matter: the quotidian beauty of household objects. He committedly revisits his signature motifs of bowls, jugs and vessels, using repetition and abstraction to conjure an almost meditative state. In his paintings and works on paper, their forms appear tentative: broken outlines against resonant washes of abstract colour. And yet when Guggi continues his investigations as sculpture, these humble instruments are bestowed with a renewed majesty and power: polished bronze or fibreglass forms that seem to harness and heighten energy, with the simplicity and timelessness of prehistoric artefacts. Connecting both approaches is a sense of openness and fluidity, an attentiveness to prosaic details. “By salvaging beauty from distress, soulfulness from fragmentation, “writes historian and art critic Kelly Grovier, “Guggi creates objects from another world … Fragile yet enduring, they echo an esoteric tradition of shattered urns, jars, and cups that date back centuries – perennial metaphors for the breaking of forms necessary for the release of creativity.”
Guggi’s work can be found in the collections of Château La Coste, France; Akureyi Art Museum, Iceland; the National Gallery of Ireland; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Buyuk Efes Izmir Sculpture Park, Izmir, Turkey and Embassy Gardens, London, UK. Guggi has exhibited widely since the 1990’s. In recent years, he has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Château La Coste and Pucci Gallery, NY (2026), Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2024), Château La Coste, Le-Puy-Sainte-Réparade (2023) the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2022), Galerie 75 Faubourg/Galerie Enrico Navarra (2021), Kerlin Gallery (2019), Galerie Yoshii Tokyo (2019), Arcane Space LA (2019) Château la Coste, Le Puy-Sainte-Reparade (2018), the Yoshii Gallery, Paris (2017) and New York (2016); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2013, 2009, 1993, 1990).
Free, advance booking required
Film duration: 1 hour 17 minutes, followed by a Q&A
Captioning not available
TULCA Gallery
19 Eyre Square
Galway, H91 TH7T
Access
Wheelchair accessible via lift
Street entrance is not step-free
Accessible toilet
Seating available
Accessible parking (Merchants Road)
Event Time
17 November 2026
7.30–9pm
Getting There
1-minute walk from Eyre Sq.
Nearest bus stops: Eyre Sq.
Paid parking nearby
TULCA Festival of Visual Arts
Veruca Salt
Curated by Sinéad Keogh
6–22 November 2026
Galway, Ireland
Image: Official poster for Guggi (2026), courtesy of Wildcard.