Aisling Conroy

Aisling Conroy is a multidisciplinary artist using painting, print, illustration, animation and installation. She graduated from The National College of Art and Design with a BA Hons degree in Fine Art Print, 2009; and a Master of Fine Art postgraduate degree, 2011. 

Her work is represented in public and private collections, both nationally and internationally (US, UK, Spain, China, India). She has worked in the National Irish Visual Arts Library (NIVAL) at NCAD, on numerous archival, digitisation, research and educational projects (2012-2017), as well as working in the audio-visual sector with Animation Ireland (2017 - 2021). Aisling is a long time collaborator with the animation studio and maps and plans which produced her debut short film BARDO (2021), as Writer and Director.

As a painter and print-maker, Conroy's practice is concerned with the psychoanalytical and with the surrendering of the “the self” to the elements of sound, colour and form. She explores this through interpreting ritual, mysticism and states of transcendence with a particular interest in iconography, sacred art, personal and universal histories.

Her works are abstractions of the unconscious by using repeated motifs and forms. Even when faced with our mortal existence, one often repeats the same thoughts and actions in life and ends up being trapped by them; trapped by desire which can only bring suffering. This, then, adding a lot of tension to the paintings, which are quite moody and brimful; doesn’t just depict a personal experience, be can also be a universal account when considering the history of the human condition, and civilizations that have gone before.

In its Summer 2018 edition, the Irish Arts Review magazine presented “the work of 8 artists under the age of 40 who independently and boldly explore the imaginative possibilities of paint". Aisling Conroy was one of them!

Art Education         

2013-2014    Higher Diploma Management Studies, Dublin Business School, Dublin.
2009-2011    MFA (Master of Fine Art ), National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
2006-2009  BA hons Fine Art Printmaking, National College of Art and Design, Dublin.
2002-2004  Animation Production, Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dublin.
Solo exhibitions
2021
ALTER / ALTAR, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin
2017
Bardo, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin
2016
Bardo, The Arthouse, Co. Laois.
2013
Prism, Talbot Gallery, Dublin.
Ocular Reverberations, Draíocht Arts Centre, Blanchardstown, Dublin.
2012
From the Dawning, Studio Verve, Ahmedabad, India.
2011
Without Memory, Without Expectation, The Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, Co.Laois.
2009
Peepshow Reality, Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Dublin.
Group Exhibitions
2022
Outrageous, Obscene and Offensive, Bloomsday 2022 group show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin.
RHAPSODY, solo exhibition, RARA, Spain.


2021
Memento, group Winter show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin

2020
‘Drawing on Don Quixote', group show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, first presenteed at National Opera House (Oct 2019, Opera Festival Wexford), then at VUE Contemporary Art Fair (Nov 2019, RHA Dublin)
2019
‘Somewhere between perception and reality', group show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, first presented at VUE Contemporary Art Fair (November 2018, RHA Dublin)
2018
 ‘2° C’, group show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, first presented at VUE Contemporary Art Fair (November 2017, RHA Dublin)
2017
'There's a touch of the artist about old Bloom', Bloomsday group show, Olivier Cornet Gallery, Dublin.
Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Talbot Gallery, Dublin; Level , Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, Co. Laois; Art and Style 2012, Brown Thomas, Dublin.
2015
Saibhreas, The Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, Co. Laois; Saibhreas, Damer House Gallery, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary; Borders, NLT, Kathmandu, Nepal; Ciall Rialaig Arts Centre, Co. Kerry.
2014
VUE, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; RUA 133rd Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast.

2013
Proof It, The Black Church Print Studio, Dublin; Foundation13, The Hive Gallery, Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
2012
Fast Moving Consumer Goods, Talbot Gallery, Dublin; Level , Dunamaise Arts Centre, Portlaoise, Co. Laois; Art and Style 2012, Brown Thomas, Dublin.
2011
Impressions 2010, Galway Arts Centre, Galway. 
2009
RDS Student Art Awards, Dublin; Drawing Eire, 411 Galleries, Shanghai, China; Impressions Print Exhibition, Galway Arts Centre, Galway; Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Belfast.

Collections

Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin, Office of Public Works' State Art Collection , Laois County Council, Axa Insurance, Irish Independent, International Centre for Contemporary Printmaking, US, The National Council of Bioethics. Private collections around Ireland, UK, Spain, U.S and India.


Awards and Residencies

2023:

Recipient of film residency at Centre Culturel Irlandais Paris, in association with Cartoon Saloon


2022: 

Recipient of the Arts Council Agility Award

BARDO, IFTA nominee, Best Short Animation 

BARDO, Tribeca Film Festival, ‘At Home’ selection


2021:

BARDO, joint winner of Best Irish Short, Dubin Animation Film Festival

BARDO, winner of Best Debut Short Animated Film, Galway Film Fleadh 33rd Edition (premiere). 

RARA Art Residence, Spain, artist residency