Ardú Street Art to work on two new Cork city centre murals

Cork city open-air gallery Ardú Street Art has returned with a new programme of large-scale murals and artistic talent for 2025, with two new murals set to decorate Water Street and Liberty Street this week.

Ardú Street Art was established in Cork during lockdown of October 2020, originally bringing seven of Ireland’s most respected street artists to create large scale murals at key Cork city-centre locations.

A spokesperson for Ardú said: “Thanks to phenomenal community engagement and support, the event returned annually with more walls unveiled.

Cultural landscape

“These inspiring pieces of work dotted across the city add greatly to the cultural landscape of the city centre.

“They’ve spurred conversations on the ground, shared widely across online platforms. Ardú Street Art continues to brighten up the streets of Cork year after year.”

The first mural of 2025, “The Wonder of Travel”, was recently unveiled at Cork Airport.

A collaboration between Cork-based artists Peter Martin and Shane O’Driscoll, the work celebrates the history of air travel through Cork Airport since 1961, while looking forward to its future.

“This mural hopes to explore the excitement and endless possibilities that air travel brings to the people of Cork and further afield,” Mr Marin said.

In addition, Ardú has announced two new large-scale murals set for Cork city centre, both of which begun on Monday.

One is on Water Street and by artist Kone.one.

The Cork-born multidisciplinary artist has roots in graffiti culture and has spent the past decade developing a style that blends graphic and illustrative elements with figurative realism while he was living and travelling around the world.

Surreal quality

The second mural, at Liberty Street, is designed by Jo Hicks (aka Hixxy), a renowned Nottinghamshire born mural artist now living in Dublin.

“Grounded in collage and printmaking, her work has a playful, sometimes surreal quality,” the Ardú spokesperson said.

“Interested in exploring themes around connection, personal space, limbo and balance, Hixxy explores what are the knock-on effects we have to one another, and how to balance the need for community yet retain identity.”

Ardú Street Art Project is the brainchild of visual artist and designer Shane O’Driscoll, muralist, stained-glass artist and secondary school teacher Peter Martin, and organiser of the annual Cork Graffiti Jam, Paul Gleeson.

It is project managed by Rose-Anne Kidney of Goldiefish Events with the generous support from Creative Ireland, Cork City Council Arts Office and Pat McDonnell Paints and aims to bring colour, conversation, and creativity to the streets of Cork.