Echoes of Modernism: Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zurich, Switzerland

Eamon O’Kane’s paintings offer a compelling lens onto some of the most significant buildings and design icons of modern architecture. His work traces how architectural ideas evolve over time, shaped by exchange, adaptation, and reinterpretation across cultures and generations.

These complex interconnections take form in O’Kane’s distinctive painterly language. Iconic structures emerge within dreamlike landscapes, where architecture and nature dissolve into atmospheric, immersive spaces. Through a deliberate use of colour, he subtly directs perception and mood. Rather than presenting architecture as objective documentation, O’Kane creates poetic and deeply personal images that render it as something lived and felt, while also reflecting on the ways ideas travel between people and places.

Referencing figures such as Lina Bo Bardi, Le Corbusier, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Ray and Charles Eames, and Frank Lloyd Wright, O’Kane highlights the transatlantic circulation of ideas surrounding space, landscape, function, and identity, and their architectural expression in both Europe and North America.

A central focus of the exhibition is the Irish architect and designer Eileen Gray. O’Kane pays tribute to her legacy, illuminating her connections to influential contemporaries and her lasting impact on modern architecture in Europe.

The artist also turns his attention to Irish modernism, exploring the work of architects such as Scott, Tallon, Walker and Liam McCormick who brought modern architectural thinking into dialogue with Ireland’s deeply rooted cultural and archaeological heritage, such as Newgrange and The Grianán of Aileach.

Rather than presenting modernism as a linear sequence of masterpieces, the exhibition reveals it as a dynamic network of influences, encounters, and mutual inspiration.

O’Kane’s work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Irish Museum of Modern Art in Dublin, and the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden. His works are held in numerous prominent public and private collections worldwide.

The exhibition is supported by Culture Ireland’s  Cultúr 2026 programme.

Marking Ireland’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and celebrating the wealth of talent among Irish artists working today.