Roisin Markham

“A playful river” is Elida Maiques solo exhibition at the Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, County Wicklow till the 2nd of May 2026.

An artist who I am getting to know and her exhibition is worth your time.

Upstairs as I came into the to the exhibition I meet art on the walls and two rolls of paper, I was immediately drawn to the table of seeds. Two stools arranged crisply on either side of a small table with orange rind bowls and a selection of seeds, it felt like an invitation to a conversation.

But it took me a while to become present to the craft, the objects, the story of Elida’s work and the skill in which she makes. The exquisite nature of what her exhibition shares.

I noticed it first in the beauty and care of the willow baskets woven. Flat beautiful circular shallow baskets with a broad lip.

I’m trying to find the right word for the presence of calm, coherence, made, crafted, nature shaped in a rhythm of care that harmonises the object and the quality of the work. It does not shout look I made this but centres the material in a partnership that reveres both the material wild or grown along with the hand that shapes it.

The excellence is a given.

The care of craft is obvious as is the radiating devotion to materials. Displayed on the wall above bushels of willow, a basket of tools beside a vase of willow rooting and bursting into leaf.

A story arc of woven care and a clear love of materials.

Go see this exhibition if you can and even more so go find an opportunity to draw with Elida and others as part of her arts residency.

To the left of this arrangement a curtain pulled back revealing a human sized nest with two bright yellow orange cushions. Another strong invitation to sit and be present with someone.

for some unknown reason I never published this although it was written in April after I visited the exhibition.