Rebecca Lyons: Kerry origami artist among the contributors to Incognito charity sale
Tralee-based Rebecca Lyons is one of the contributors to the Incognito sale in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation.
The largest artwork Rebecca Lyons has ever made was an installation of 5,000 paper butterflies at the Roundy Bar in her native Tralee. “I do an installation for Culture Night every year,” she says.
“And that year, in 2018, I spent three solid months folding butterflies for an installation called Metamorphosis. Customers at the bar would have taken some of them home, more I would have later put on cards and given away as gifts. And some I still have in a box.”
Along with her annual Culture Night installations, Lyons is one of the hundreds of artists who contributes work each year to the Incognito auction in aid of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. “I think the first time I contributed was in 2018,” she says.
“They send out a pack every year, with three cards for you to put your work on. They’re usually postcard-sized, but this year they’re bigger, about eight inches by six, which is great, as you can fit more work in.”
In the past, the Incognito auctions have featured work by Bruce Springsteen, Bono and Tracey Emin. This year, the event features over 2,000 original artworks, all of which can be viewed online, with the online auction scheduled for May 20.
The artists’ names are not revealed until after the auction, and Lyons always enjoys guessing who might have made which pieces. “Sometimes I’d recognise their style, but other times, I’ve known the artists but haven’t realised the work is theirs,” says Lyons.
Lyons will not be drawn on what her own artworks look like, but all three are inspired by traditional Japanese origami, the craft of paper folding she has made her own in recent years.
Lyons’ original medium was metal. She studied sculpture at the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork, graduating in 2002. “In those days, I was folding big sheets of metal. I suppose it was similar to folding paper, like I do in origami, though that was a term I wasn’t even familiar with back then.”
After college, she moved to London, where she completed a BTEC in Fine Art Management at Kensington and Chelsea College and an Introduction to Curating Course at Central St Martin’s. “I ended up working in IKEA for the 10 years I was in London,” she says.
“That was a good experience, but then, when I came back to Ireland, I really wanted to get back into the creative side of things. I love the physical nature of working with my hands, so I did a master’s in creative media at the Institute of Technology Tralee. And that was when I began working with paper.”
Part of the attraction for Lyons is that traditional origami is very nature based. “Usually my subjects are animals and plants,” she says.
“There's a lot of folklore behind the craft of origami in Japan, and the most popular design is the crane bird. I imagine every child in the country knows how to fold it. The first installation I did for Culture Night was 1,000 paper crane birds in 2017.
“But I’d also be inspired by geometry and postmodern architecture. In the last two or three years, I've been designing mandalas and my own modular pieces.”
Lyons work as Arts and Culture Officer with Tralee Chamber Alliance, and mostly shows her work in markets around Co Kerry. “I run the Art in the Park every Saturday in the summer months. That’s where local artists can display their work, when the weather allows, on the railings of the town park in Tralee, just like they do in Merrion Square in Dublin.
"There’s a very vibrant art scene in Tralee. There's a great variety of artists; you'd have illustrators and animators as well as traditional oil and acrylic painters. There's an abundance of talent here.”
One of Lyons’ future projects is to produce a book of her origami patterns. “It would be lovely to have people folding paper to my designs,” she says. She also hopes to get back to working with metal someday. “I don’t have the space at the moment, but that would be a dream.”
Incognito was founded by Lucinda Hall in 2017 to raise funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. The charity supports in-home nursing and respite care for children up to the age of seven with severe to profound cognitive delay, as well as end-of-life care for all children up to the age of seven.
Over the past 10 years, Incognito has raised €1.4 million and funded more than 80,000 hours of care.
The 2026 online auction features over 2,000 artworks by emerging and established artists.
Each artwork measures 6 x 8 inches, and costs €75. The artists’ identities will not be revealed until after the auction on May 20.
If you wish to be a supporter, you are invited to register your details on incognito.ie. Then select the artwork you would like to purchase, enter your bank details, and click the ‘Enter the Raffle for this Artwork’ button.
You will receive an email confirming your entry.
You may enter as many raffles as you wish.
Entry for the auction closes at 11.45am on May 20. The raffle at 12pm will select the winner for each artwork at random. If successful, your card will be charged, and you will be notified by email.
If you are not successful in the raffle, you may still purchase any of the remaining artworks in the live sale.
You may also donate directly to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation at jackandjill.ie.
- Further information: incognito.ie
