Samuel Laurence Cunnane: Blue Road
Admire the photographer’s luminous images, showing his sensitivity to subtle qualities of light and atmosphere, at our free exhibition.
Blue Road, the first London exhibition by Irish artist Samuel Laurence Cunnane, brings together works from the past decade of his analogue photography practice.
Cunnane takes many of his photographs during extensive periods of travel across Europe and beyond, returning afterwards to his native County Kerry in southern Ireland, where he meticulously develops the colour prints in his darkroom.
The photographs record fleeting scenes which might go unnoticed. And yet, with Cunnane’s sensitivity to subtle qualities of light and atmosphere, these commonplace subjects yield quiet and glowing intensity. The exhibition’s title refers to one such moment captured by the artist: a stretch of newly tarmacked road, appearing blue in the early evening light.
Cunnane’s work offers the viewer an invitation to look more intently. In such sincere looking, the world at once reveals itself and yet seems to remain stubbornly obscured.
Samuel Laurence Cunnane (b. 1989, County Kerry, Ireland) studied Photography in IADT, Dun Laoghaire. He was most recently a recipient of a year-long residency in the Internationales Kunstlehaus Villa Concordia in Bamberg, Germany and has been the subject of exhibitions at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2025); Öktem&Aykut, Istanbul (2025, 2021, 2017); Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2024, 2020, 2015); OCT Boxes Museum of Art, Shunde, China (2018); Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin (2016) and THEODORE: Art, New York (2015).
Cunnane’s work can be found in the collections of OCT Boxes Art Museum, Shunde, China; The TIA Collection, Sante Fe, New Mexico; the National Gallery of Ireland; the Arts Council of Ireland; the Trinity College Art Collection, Dublin.
Need to know
Learn more about the exhibition, with behind-the-scenes insights, on the Bloomberg Connects app.
Selected works
For your visit
This event is held at the Hayward Gallery Southbank Centre
Tuesday – Thursday, 10am – 6pm
Friday, 10am – 9pm
Saturday, 10am – 8pm
Sunday, 10am – 6pm
Closed Mondays
Plan your visit
The Hayward Gallery is also where you’ll find the HENI Project Space.
Getting here
Our address is Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX.
The nearest tube stations to us are Waterloo and Embankment; Waterloo is also the nearest train station. And more than 20 different London bus routes pass within 500 metres of our venues. More information on getting here by rail, road or river is available on our Getting here page.
Cloakroom
We have a cloakroom for coats, umbrellas and small bags; it costs £2 per item.
We’re cash-free
Please note that we’re unable to accept cash payments across our venues.
Access
We’re working hard to remove barriers, so that our facilities and events can be accessible to as many people as possible.
All help points, toilets, performance and exhibition spaces at the Southbank Centre are accessible to all, as are the cafes, bars and restaurants. We also have excellent public transport links with step-free access.
All information about booking wheelchair spaces, step-free access, blue badge parking, access maps and guides and other help available whilst you’re here, including details about our Access Scheme, can be found on our Access page.
Exhibition tours
Guided tours of our Hayward Gallery exhibitions are available to ticket holders; the dates and times of these can be found when you click through to book your exhibition tickets.
If you’d like to arrange a private/group tour of an exhibition, please contact us. The Hayward Gallery does not accept external tour guides or tour groups – all exhibition tours must be arranged through the Southbank Centre.
Food & drink
Offering sandwiches, salads, cakes and coffee, Hayward Gallery Cafe is the perfect spot for a pre-exhibition energy boost or a post-visit drink.
From coffee to cocktails, filling favourites to fine dining, plus some of London’s best street food – it’s all here at the Southbank Centre.