Join us for the Interior Arts Building Open House
Wednesday, May 27th from Noon – 4PM

We will be featuring new works by Irish artist Joe Hogan and serving refreshments all afternoon.

Since 1978, Joe Hogan has been weaving baskets in his studio at Loch na Fooey, in County Galway, Ireland. After studying philosophy, Hogan was looking for a way to live the kind of life he respected close to the land, self sufficient and rural. At first, he focused his explorations on neglected traditional forms with specific uses like lobster pots, turf and log baskets, and large skib strainers. Gradually he moved away from prescribed function in favor of a deeper need, the human desire to find a connection, to belong. Using foraged wood, like pieces taking on fantastical qualities from their time buried in peat bogs, and his homegrown willow, he creates closed forms, pods, and pockets, almost large enough to retreat into, if only there were a way to get inside.

Hogan began weaving nests in 2012 as an exploration of what it means to have a home and a place in the world. Not intended to be ornithologically correct, these pieces are meditations on the wonder one feels when finding a bird’s nest in nature. Creating something idiosyncratic and handmade, but trying to efface his human touch, Hogan creates a place for birds in our hearts so that we care that their populations on both sides of the Atlantic are in steep decline along with their insect food sources.

Hogan has published three books on the art and practice of basketweaving, inspiring a new generation of makers to take up this traditional medium. In 2015, he won the California Gold Medal at the Royal Dublin Society Craft Competition. He was awarded the lifetime achievement award by Design & Crafts Council Ireland, presented by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, in 2021. Hogan joined the advisory panel for the Golden Fleece Award in 2025. He has exhibited his work extensively in Ireland and internationally. His work is in public collections including the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin and Ulster Museum in Belfast. He was one of 6 artists chosen for the recent RTÉ “Masters: Keepers of Tradition” television program alongside a stonemason, thatcher, clockmaker, weaver and blacksmith.

Click this link to watch RTÉ’s coverage of Joe Hogan’s practice, and join us on May 27th to celebrate his new work as part of IAB Open House.