Born 1987, Ireland.
My paintings are a reflection of past conflicts, influenced by my upbringing in Donegal during the Northern Ireland troubles. Each painting captures a moment in history and attempts to understand it from our modern perception.
I Examine past events from a modern perspective and how that view can become construed or altered over time. "Rose tinted glasses effect" is a term that I use to describe the aesthetic sensibility of these paintings. The idea that nostalgia and the passing of time can somehow romanticise events or colour them in a way, is a direct metaphor for the process of this work. I usually start with a black and white journal photo, an account of an event or a documentary still. I then digitally manipulate and colour the imagery, representing the passing of time and a layer of an artificial romance.
The intersection of technology and art is a driving force in my art and my process involves constructing my works digitally before painting on canvas. I am interested in the progress of painting within the technological era. My paintings utilise current innovations in technology to push the boundaries of painting, to create new ways of seeing within painting itself.
CV
Awards
Whytes Award, RHA 2012.
RTE Artist Award, 2007.
Selected Exhibitions
Nov 2013 - "Retrospect" - (Solo Exhibition), Bloody Sunday cultural trust, Derry N.Ireland. Part of the Derry, N.Ireland - City of Culture programme.
Nov 2013 - "New Living Art IV", Irish Museum of Contemporary Art
April 2013 - "Out of Boom bust and Ruin springs this", Filmbase Temple Bar, Dublin
Oct 2012- "New Living Art III", Irish Museum of Contemporary Art
Sept 2012 - "Just in time for the apocalypse". Moxie Studios, Dublin
May 2012 - "Play", Moxie Studios
May 2012 - "RHA annual Show, Royal Hibernain Academy", Dublin
Dec 2011 - "Making do with paper crowns", Moxie Studios, Dublin
Jun 2011 - "This is my body.", An exhibition curated by the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the Language of Illness and pain conference: identity, Communication and Clinical Encounter, London.
Mar 2011 - "One of Several Wolves", Moxie Studios, Dublin
Education
2007 /2008 - Fachochschule Augsburg,Germany
2005 - 2009 - University of Ulster, Magee, Derry , N.Ireland