Recipient of RHA School and Fingal Arts Studio Award 2016

Aoibheann Greenan was the successful recipient of the Fingal County Council Studio Award 2016. 

Her award gave her studio space at the RHA for a year-long residency, which commenced in September 2016. The award offers an artist the opportunity to develop their practice within the institutional framework of the RHA and covers the cost of studio rental and administration. The artist has access to the ancillary activities of the School such as master classes, seminars, artist talks and drawing groups. In addition, the award places them in an environment with other professional visual artists. 

Aoibheann Greenan is a multidisciplinary artist working at the intersection of visual art and experimental theatre. Her work critically examines the process by which culture and identity are evaluated in our digital and globalized era. Greenan’s immersive installations resemble tourist attractions such as naturescapes and sites of ritual. Pseudo-relics and ambiguous consumer items frequently populate these spaces in the form of sculptures, costumes and drawings. Deliberate cultural misappropriations humorously reflect the romantic projections of the cultural voyeur whose pursuit of a mythical otherness ensures the perpetuation of contrived exoticism. These heightened caricatures parody the tropes of mediation synonymous with tourist sites that largely predetermine the experience of each visitor. Often these installations become stages for further human action; either in the form of a performance, through the encouragement of audience participation or both.

Greenan graduated from NCAD in 2010 with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art Painting. Since then she has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Her work has been selected for solo exhibitions in institutions such as the Wexford Arts Centre (forthcoming); Import Projects, Berlin (forthcoming); Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; The RHA, Dublin; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Roscommon Arts Centre. In 2012 Greenan’s work was selected for EVA International, Limerick (curated by Annie Fletcher). Most recently she has been invited to exhibit her work at Circle Music and Art Festival in Reykjavik and The KW Institute in Berlin. Greenan has been awarded residencies at SIM, Reykjavik; SOMA, Mexico City and Chateau de Servieres, Marseilles. She has been the recipient of the Fire Station Sculpture Workshop Award and the Temple Bar Gallery Studio Award. She has received bursaries from Culture Ireland, Arts Council Ireland and Fingal Arts Office.