At the 42nd Annual General Assembly of Aosdána, the organisation whose members are honoured for their contribution to the arts in Ireland, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh was the sole visual artist to join the ranks.
At the 42nd Annual General Assembly of Aosdána, the organisation whose members are honoured for their contribution to the arts in Ireland, Sinéad Ní Mhaonaigh was the sole visual artist to join the ranks. A painter of remarkable and resolute consistency, Ní Mhaonaigh has explored a recognisable world of colour, texture, form and space, the latter being central to her work in both physical and conceptual senses. While she is not a representational painter, her compositions do suggest specific lines of interpretation, often centred on sites of communal and personal ritual and meaning.
Responding to her election, Ní Mhaonaigh said, ‘It’s an honour, and it’s humbling, when I think of the rising generation of artists around me. I’m particularly pleased as a painter – we’re increasingly rare beasts.’ Ní Mhaonaigh is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery in Dublin and 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel in New York. She was elected an academician of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2023 and has an impressive record of shows in public venues. ‘It’s always a challenge to take on a large public venue. It’s also an opportunity to reassess your process, where you are. I remember particularly working with Belinda Quirke at Solstice in Navan last year [‘Deep Mapping: Unseen Landscapes’]. It was a good experience for me to do a survey show in a great space.’ Ní Mhaonaigh will show at Letterkenny’s Regional Cultural Centre next year.
The other new Aosdána member in the visual arena is architect Roísín Heneghan of Heneghan Peng Architects. Heneghan Peng’s major projects include the new, monumental Grand Egyptian Museum at Giza (the vast and ambitious complex is currently at the stage of partial, phased openings), the National Gallery of Ireland refurbishment, the Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre and the Palestinian Museum, Bristol).
Six other creative artists were elected. In literature, Catherine Dunne, Louise Lowe and Paul Lynch; and in music, Ed Bennett, Shaun Davey and Andrew Hamilton, filling the complement of 250 artists.
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