Biography
Aisling McCoy is an Irish artist whose work looks at how we inhabit space. Her background as an architect is central to her practice, which investigates the conflict between architecture as an intellectual concept – created through images – and its translation into built form. She’s particularly interested in the ideological aspect of inhabitation and the role of both architecture and photography in constructing the ideal. Over the past year her art and teaching practice has focused on the physicality of the photograph; both as a method of translating space, and an object which generates its own space of meaning.
A graduate of the MFA Photography programme at the Belfast School of Art, Aisling’s work has been exhibited internationally. In 2017 she was a selected artist for PhotoIreland New Irish Works, was awarded the Seen Fifteen/Belfast Exposed Futures Exhibition Award, and is the recipient of the Arts Council Next Generation Award. She is currently working on a new body of work at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, which will be exhibited as a solo show in London in early 2018.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 BOKEH, Exhibition of Contemporary Photography, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin
2024 Les Travaux, Ville de Cournon d’Auvergne, France
2022 Images are all we have, PhotoIreland, Dublin
2022 Still, SO Fine Art Editions, Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, Dublin
2020 The Positive Space, Various locations, Dublin City
2019 Poetics of Space, Space Lhomond, Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris
2019 New Irish Works, Museum of Contemporary Photography of Ireland, Dublin
2019 Capture, SO Fine Art Editions, Powerscourt Townhouse Centre, Dublin
2018 Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin Art Book Fair, Dublin
2018 Open House Dublin, Home on the Grange, Dublin
2017 Engage, Gallery of Photography, Dublin
2017 THF (solo show) Belfast Exposed Futures Gallery, Belfast
2017 New Irish Works, The Library Project, PhotoIreland, Dublin
2017 Interactions, Belfast Exposed, Belfast
2016 New Irish Works, Space Lhomond, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris
2016 Home on the Grange, Open House Dublin
2016 PhotoLondon, Peckham 24, Belfast Exposed Futures at the Copeland Gallery, London
2016 Circulations Festival, 104 Gallery, Paris
2015 Beyond the Camera, Pingyao International Photography Festival, Shanxi Province, China
2015 Fotobookfestival Kassel Dummy Award, Travelling exhibition: Rome, Madrid, Dublin, Kaunas, Oslo, Istanbul
2015 RDS Student Art Awards Exhibition, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin
2015 Scopic MFA Graduate Exhibition, Darc Space Gallery, Dublin and Belfast School of Art, Ulster University, Belfast
2015 Nine Lives, The Tank, Design Museum, London
2015 Royal Hibernian Academy, Annual Exhibition, Dublin
2013 PhotoIreland, The Beginning of the Sharpness, Dublin
2013 Culture Night, Block T, Dublin
2012 IAF Open House, Describing Architecture Exhibition, Dublin
2012 Royal Hibernian Academy, Annual Exhibition, Dublin
Awards
2023 Ville de Cournon d’Auvergne, Photographic Residency & Commission
2020 Visual Arts Bursary Award, Arts Council of Ireland
2020 Language Bursary Award, Centre Cultural Irlandais, Paris
2019 Futures Artist at Unseen Amsterdam, Nominated by PhotoIreland
2019 Travel & Training Award, Arts Council of Ireland
2019 New Irish Works, Selected Artist
2019 Cité Internationale des Arts Paris, residency, Institut Français
2017 Next Generation Award, Arts Council of Ireland
2017 Project Studio Award, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios
2017 Belfast Exposed/ Seen Fifteen, Exhibition Award
2017 Belfast Exposed Futures, Selected Artist
2016 New Irish Works, PhotoIreland, Selected Artist
2015 Kassel Photobook Festival, Dummy Book Award 2015, shortlisted book