Siobhán McDonald

Siobhán McDonald’s practice draws attention to contemporary topics dealing with air, breath and atmospheric phenomena, weaving scientific knowledge into her art in a poetic and thoughtful manner. 

Artist Biography

Siobhán McDonald is an Irish artist based in Dublin. In a practice that emphasizes field work and collaboration she works with natural materials, withdrawing them from their cycles of generation, growth and decay. This process gives form to a range of projects which consider our place on Earth in the context of geological time. Her work with glaciers and other natural phenomena deploys a unique artistic language that gives form to intangible and richly varied processes including painting, drawing, film and sound.

The artist was the inaugural recipient of the OCEAN MEMORY AWARD (2022,) published in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/19/microphones-dropped-into-ocean-off-greenland-to-record-melting-icebergs. Recent awards include the Visual Arts Bursary award 2023; Visual Arts Project award 2023; OCEAN MEMORY AWARD 2022; EU Commission Alumni (IT) award 2022; Culture Ireland Award 2022; Arts Council's Visual Arts Project Award 2022; Creative Ireland Award 2022 and Climate Whirl Arts Programme Helsinki 2021.

McDonald has recently exhibited nationally at The Model (2023,) Sligo and internationally at Ars Electronica (2022,) Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (2022,) The Weisman Museum, USA (2023,) Centre for Contemporary Art LAZNIA (2022,) Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, (2018) Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, (2020); Volta, Basel (2019); Limerick City Art Gallery, (2019); Deutsches Hygiene-Museum DHMD, (2019); The National Trust-Fox Talbot Museum, UK, (2018) among other Galleries and festivals.

Working with world-leading research facilities such as The European Space Agency (ESA) and The JRC European Commission, BOZAR: Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels and Gluon: Platform for Art, Science and Technology, she develops projects about environmental change. She is also Artist in Residence at the School of Natural Sciences, Trinity College Dublin (2023-2025.) Her research-based approach pursues knowledge to ask questions about the structure and history of the earth. She calls on notions of what is still unknown to science, exploring the Anthropocene and the recent consequences of our treatment of nature. Her work is represented in many collections, both public and private such as The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon, Allied Irish Banks, Bank of Ireland, The Ulster Museum and Trinity College Dublin.

www.siobhanmcdonald.com

MA in Visual Arts Practice, Dun Laoghaire, Institute of Art and Design, Dublin

BA (Honours) Degree in Art and Design University of Ulster at Belfast 

EXHIBITIONS

·       2023 The Bogs are Breathing, The Model, Sligo

·       2023 Living Canvas Public Art Project, At the Edge of Visibility, Dublin

·       2022 Invisible Seam, Ars Electronica, Linz

·       2022 The Week the Sun Touched The Earth, Centre Culturel Irlandaise, Paris

·       2022 Epistemic Collisions, Centre for Contemporary Art LAZNIA

·       2022 To Bough and to Bend, at The Weisman Museum, USA

·       2022, Earth: Digging Deep 1781 - 2022, Royal West of England Academy

·       2022 Studiotopia, Bozar, Brussels

·       2020 Datami, Bozar, Brussels

·       2019 Volta, Basel 2019

·       2019 Monuments for the future, Limerick City Gallery, Ireland

·       2019 Science Gallery Dublin Science Gallery Dublin: Future Breath

·       2019 North Star, European Space Agency, Netherlands

·       2018 When plants remember, The Henry Fox Talbot Museum, UK

·       2018 When Plants remember, art.earth, UK

·       2018 Disappearing Worlds, Solo show. Taylor Galleries, Dublin

·       2017 Crystalline, Highlanes Gallery, Ireland

·       2017 Crystalline, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

·       2014 Aimsir, The O’Brien Centre for Science, University College, Dublin

·       2013 Core, The Historic Seismic Museum, Germany

·       2012 Seism, The Dock Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland

·       2012 Eye of the Storm, The Galway Arts Centre

·       2012 Rhythm, The Drawing Project, IADT, Dublin, Ireland

·       2011 Silent Sound II, The Joinery, Dublin

·       2011 Silent Sound I, The Catherine Hammond Gallery, West Cork, Ireland

·       2008 Shroud, Clodagh Gallery, New York

SELECTED AWARDS

·       2023 Project Award, Arts Council Ireland

·       2023 Bursary Award, Arts Council Ireland

·       2022 Project Award, Arts Council Ireland

·       2022 OCEAN MEMORY award, the Ocean Memory Project. USA

·       2021 EU Commission: Alumni Award2021 Agility Award, Arts Council Ireland

·       2017 The Trinity Creative Challenge Award, Trinity College Dublin

·       2020 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council Ireland

·       2019 Dublin City Council, ‘An Urgent Inquiry’ short-listed

·       2017 Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council Ireland

·       2017 Imagining Ireland in the UK, Culture Ireland

·       2017 Creative Ireland Award: The Black Pig’s Dyke

·       2016 The European Research Council

·       2016 Travel and Training Award, Arts Council Ireland

·       2016 Awarded 4 week residency at Centre Culturel Irlandaise, Summer 2017

·       2015 Awarded BAI Sound and Vision, RTÉ Lyric FM funded by Broadcasting Authority of Ireland

·       2015 Awarded Public Art Commission, The School of Environmental Science, UCD,

·       2015 Culture Ireland Award 2015, Exhibition at Connect Festival, Oslo

·       2014 Short-listed for the Golden Fleece Award

·       2013 Awarded Associate AIR Residency, University College Dublin

·       2012 Bursary Award, Arts Council of Ireland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

·       2024 Bogskin, Royal Hibernian Academy, curated by Patrick Murphy

·       2024 Y3K: On Distant Keys, Design Building Gallery, UMass Amherst, Boston

·       2024 The Scale of Water, Michael Penny gallery, Bath.

·       2022 Studiotopia, Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, Gdansk.

·       2019 Datami, European Commission, Ispra, Italy

·       2019 Of Plants and People, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Germany

·       2018 Shine on Me The Sun and Us. Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Germany

·       2016 Imago Mundi Project, exhibited Internationally. Curated: Sean Kissane.

·       2015 Deep Songs, Connect Festival, in collaboration with Susan Stinger, Oslo

·       2015 Continuum, Live Performance The Lab Gallery

·       2015 Welcome Disturbances, The Lab Gallery, Dublin

·       2014 Elemental, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris

·       2014 The Annual RHA exhibition, Invited Artist

·       2014 The Boyle Arts Festival, Invited Artist

·       2013 Taylor Galleries 'Winter Group show'

·       2013 Taylor Galleries, VUE National Contemporary Art Fair at the RHA

·       2013 The Fenderensky Gallery, Belfast, "Les Fleures Du Mal" Invited Artist

·       2012 Winter Show, Taylor Gallery, Dublin

COMMISSIONS

·       2024 Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Hyytiälän Forestry Station Field: Climate Whirl art program, Finland

·       2024 Centre for Landscape Regeneration, Cambridge University.

·       2024 RHA Dublin, Bogskin

·       2023 Trinity Centre for Natural Product Research ‘Unlocking Nature’s Pharmacy from Bogland Species (UNPBS)

·       2023 The Model, Home of the Niland collection

·       2023 Creative Ireland Commission, The Bogs are Breathing

·       2021 Creative Ireland Commission, The Black Pig’s Dyke

·       2020 Of Plants and People, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum, Germany

·       2020 Gluon, Studiotopia

·       2018 The European Commission, Ispra

·       2017 Creative Ireland: The Black Pig’s Dyke

·       2016 Bank of Ireland, New York

·       2016 The School of Biology and Environmental science, University College Dublin

·       2014 The O’Brien Centre for Science, University College Dublin

COLLECTIONS

Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Finland; Arts Council of Ireland, Allied Irish Bank, Bank of Ireland, University College Dublin, University of Ulster, Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Four Seasons Hotel Group, PwC, The Office of Public Works, An Bord Gáis

REVIEWS AND ARTICLES

·       2023 Irish Times review by Sylvia Thompson: https://www.irishtimes.com/environment/climate-crisis/2023/05/25/a-meditation-on-memory-and-time-siobhan-mcdonald-captures-landscapes-at-tipping-points/

·       2022 The Guardian feature: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/19/microphones-dropped-into-ocean-off-greenland-to-record-melting-icebergs, by Rory Carroll

·       2022 The week the sun met the earth, Science et Avenir, Paris by Dominique Leglu.

·       2019 Artist Siobhan McDonald on geology, time and the Anthropocene, Culture RTE, by Cristin Leach

·       2018 Ash to art: Can Mount Etna’s eruptions tackle carbon emissions?, The Irish Times, by Sue Rainsford

·       2018 Breathe the pressure, Sunday Business Post, by Cathy Dillon

·       2018 Disappearing Worlds Publication, Text by Catherine Marshall. Published by: Oonagh Young Galleries

·       2018 Painting the Mysteries of Science, Arts and Climate Change, by Chantal Bilodeau

·       2017 Somewhere in the Future, Irish Art Review, feature by Julian Campbell 

·       2017 Arctic expeditions and stars collide to create 'quietly powerful' show, The Guardian, by Barbara Lasas

·       2017 Repurposing scientific materials into works of art, an artist confronts the Anthropocene, Science Magazine, by Deborah Dixon

·       2017 Crystalline, Interalia Magazine, by Stuart Clarke

·       2017 Siobhan McDonald’s chance encounters with a changing world, Apollo International Art Magazine, by Tom Jeffreys

·       2017 Her Crystalline Mine, The Sunday Times, by John O'Sullivan

·       2016 My works seek to merge the poetic and the scientific, The Guardian

·       2016 Nature Geoscience Journal: Front Cover

·       2015 My Arctic Voyage of Self discovery, The Irish Times, The Gloss Magazine

·       2015 Siobhán McDonald: the art of scientific exploration, The Irish Times

·       2014 Layer by layer: how Siobhán McDonald paints like a geologist, Irish Times, by Dick Ahlstrom

·       2014 Welcome Disturbances Publication, The lab, Dublin, by Jane Humphries

·       2013 Volcanic art: ‘Iceland is like a blank canvas’, Irish Times, by Kevin Courtney

·       2012 Tim Robinson, Eye of the Storm Publication

·       2009 Resonant ecologies… towards listening, Circa Magazine, by Jessica Foley

·       2009 Essay by Rachael Thomas, Head of Exhibitions, IMMA

RESIDENCIES

·       2024 Cambridge University,  Artist in residence, Centre for Landscape Regeneration

·       2204 Trinity College Dublin, Artist in residence, School of Natural Sciences

·       2023 La Chapelle residency, Naxos, Greece to study the Mediterranean sea

·       2022 Greenland, 4-week sea expedition: US National Science polar Foundation

·       2022 Smear Forest, University of Helsinki

·       2021 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Italy

·       2019 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Italy

·       2017 Trinity College Dublin, The School of Natural Sciences, 2018

·       2017 The European Space Agency, October 2017

·       2016 Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. Summer 2016

·       2016 The Henry Fox Talbot Museum, UK, Summer 2016

·       2016 The European Space Agency, Amsterdam, June 2016

·       2015 The Arctic Circle Residency, The North Pole, July 2015

·       2014 University College Dublin, College of Science, 'Artist in Residence' 2013-2016

·       2012 The Historical Seismic Observatory of Emil Wiechert, Germany

·       2011 SIM Residency, Iceland, Summer 2011

LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS, PANELS

·       2024 The Anthropocene Lab: artist talk: UMASS, University of Massachusetts

·       2023 The Unnatural History Museum: ‘Mass Extinction’ Artist talk with Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Donal Maguire and Bergit Arends

·       2023 Tim Robinson Symposium, Architecture at the Edge, Kylemore Abbey

·       2021 Artist talk: 'Climate Change: Perspectives from the Arts and Humanities, NUI' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6AJP2kDxzw 

·       2021 Artist talk: JRC EU Commission, Ispra

·       2020 Artist talk: Ars Electronica, Switzerland

·       2019 Artist talk: The Void, Derry

·       2019 Radical ReThink | Artist Talk with Brian Maguire at Regional Cultural Centre

·       2019 Art in the Anthropocene: Trinity College Dublin.

·       2018 Artist talk, Department of History, Trinity College Dublin, Yvonne Scott

·       2018 Artist Talk: Linear Earthworks, Bronze Age: Heritage Office 2018 Artist Talk: An Urgent Inquiry, Dublin City Council, Caroline Crowley

·       2018 Artist Talk: European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Milan, Italy

·       2017 TEDx presents Siobhan McDonald

·       2016 Royal Geographic Society, The Nexus of Art and Geography: practice as research

·       2016 Selected presenter at Feeding the Insatiable: a creative summit. November, 2016

·       2015 Artist Talk, Expedition 2016 - A conference as part of Dublin Theatre Festival

·       2015 Artist talk, Explorations of Light, The Science Gallery

·       2015 Artist talk, The Science Festival, IFI, Dublin