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

EDUCATION

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, Olver Design Building, UMass Amherst, Boston

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, Luciano Benetton 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

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 The White Review, by Wilson Tarbot

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, Artists 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, by Cathy Dillon

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, Science department 

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: with the 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 DIT College, Dublin

2011 SIM Residency, Iceland, Summer 2011

 

LECTURES, PRESENTATIONS, PANELS

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

2023 Tim Robinson Symposium, Artist Talk, 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 + Tyrone Guthrie Centre

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


Siobhán McDonald
mcdonaldsiobhan@gmail.com

Siobhan McDonald on Wikipedia