biography
Niamh Flanagan graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 2002 with a 1st Class Honours in Fine Art Print and is now a member of Graphic Studio Dublin. Her first solo show Dwellings of Mind and Space (2007) was held at The Printmakers Gallery, Dublin. Following on from the success of this exhibition she was invited to take part in various exhibitions including Île d'Hiver | Winter Island at Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2009) and Artist's Proof at the Chester Beatty Library Dublin. She has taken part in residencies and exhibitions in Oslo, Poland, Slovenia, Cork, Donegal, Edinburgh and Dublin. Awards include Arts Council Mentorship Scheme, Travel and Training Award and a grant from Culture Ireland. Residencies include Cill Rialiag Project, Ballinskelligs, Co. Kerry, Lindart International Artists' Colony, Lendava, Slovenia, 'Na Granicy | Where Borders Meet', Gorlice, Poland and Edinburgh Printmakers, Edinburgh, Scotland. In 2012 she created a body of work, An Elsewhere Place which was shown at Graphic Studio Gallery, Dublin.
In 2013 she set up Mobile Print Project with artist Clare Henderson, an initiative that aims to promote printmaking through education in Ireland.
She was commissioned to create a piece for Graphic Studio Dublin's 2015 Sponsors Portfolio. In 2016 she created a body of work - from islands to other seas shown at Graphic Studio Gallery alongside artists Clare Henderson and Yoko Akino. 2017 saw her take part in Other Journeys at SO Fine Art Gallery, and Collision at the Law Society of Ireland. She was awarded the 2019 Behaviour and Attitudes Commission, creating a series of three prints for the project.
She currently works as Projects Manager and Master Printer at Graphic Studio Dublin.
artist’s statement
Niamh Flanagan’s work explores the search for utopias within our world, and the restless desire to be somewhere else. She uses visual elements of the landscapes around her, both urban and rural, internal and external, to describe this search for something that is perhaps unattainable.
The prints depict a world of abstracted landscapes and cityscapes telling fragments of stories, showing the unseen, the hidden and the unreal as they lurk beneath turbulent skies.
Flux, change and growth are central concepts to the work. This playful printed world of cities and mountains, forests and islands, suggests escape and isolation. But this world depicted in the prints is a volatile one too, which lies beyond our control, with its ever-changing skies and strange fruit lurking beneath the surface. Our search for other places often leaves us wanting something else, the next thing. The world spins, the seasons change, they change back again; and we dream and spin and dream again.