Cavan Arts Festival, Cavan Arts and Townhall Arts Centre present:

Retrofits

A Solo Exhibition by John Rainey

To retrofit is to modify something made in another time, adapting it to function under new conditions. In this new solo exhibition created for the Cavan Arts Festival and Townhall Arts Centre, John Rainey adopts this logic of reuse – cutting into, combining, and reworking familiar forms from the history of sculpture to reflect contemporary pressures, values, and ways of seeing.

In Retrofits, figures shift between references, forming hybrid configurations that disrupt expectations of classical sculpture. Human and animal elements merge, creating figures shaped by transition and uncertainty. Rather than presenting fixed ideals, the sculptures propose bodies formed through adaptation, defined by their capacity to shift, combine, and take new form.

John Rainey is a sculptor based in Belfast. He graduated from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2012 with an MA in Ceramics and Glass. Previous solo exhibitions include: ‘Errors’ at Berg Gallery (Stockholm, 2025), ‘Decoys and Ghosts’ at Golden Thread Gallery (Belfast, 2025) and ‘SLIP TANK’ at the Naughton Gallery (Belfast, 2021). His sculptures are held in public collections including the UK Government Art Collection, the Irish National Collection (Crawford Art Gallery), the Irish State Collection (OPW), the Ulster Museum, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection.

John’s Website
Instagram

Townhall Arts Centre Gallery, Cavan

Official opening on Thursday, 16th April 2026 at 5pm
Exhibition continues until Wednesday, 20th May 2026

Open 10am to 4pm Tuesday to Friday
12pm to 4pm Saturday or by appointment

Townhall Arts Centre Gallery, Townhall Street, Cavan, H12 WV82.
Tel: 049 4380494 or email: townhallcavan@cavancoco.ie