About 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 | Statement
Siobhán McDonald was born in New York. She lives and works in Dublin.
Siobhán 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 artworks make use of natural phenomena and technologies to stage poetic and philosophical engagements between people and their natural world. Beginning with a specific site of investigation, Siobhán weaves diverse narratives into visual stories, often inviting nature itself to participate in the creative process. Her research-driven practice employs a distinctive artistic language to express intangible processes, utilising painting, drawing, film, and sound.
Siobhán McDonald is the recipient of prestigious international awards, including the European Commission's S+T+ARTS 4Water Award (2024) and the inaugural Ocean Memory Award (2022). In 2023, she received further awards through the EU Commission Alumni Award (Italy), the Alfred Kordelin Foundation Climate Whirl Award (Helsinki), and the Project Award (Ireland).
Presentation highlights include solo exhibitions at venues such as the Royal Hibernian Academy, Ireland (2025); VISUAL, Ireland (2024); The Model, Sligo (2023); Living Canvas Public Art Project, Ireland (2023); Palais des Beaux-Arts (BOZAR), Brussels (2022 and 2020); Ars Electronica, Austria (2022); Centrul Cultural Clujean, Romania (2022); The Weisman Museum, USA (2022); Centre for Contemporary Art ŁAŹNIA, Poland (2022); Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris (2022, 2017); Deutsches Hygiene-Museum (DHMD), Germany (2022); Volta, Basel (2021); Limerick City Art Gallery (2019); and the National Trust–Fox Talbot Museum, UK (2019), among others.
McDonald earned her Master’s degree in Art Practice from IADT, Ireland, in 2011. Her work is held in numerous public and private collections. 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
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
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
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
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 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
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
Siobhán McDonald
mcdonaldsiobhan@gmail.com
Siobhan McDonald on Wikipedia