‘new realities’ with their combination of personal narrative, of momentary and fleeting images, are brought together, transformed and communicated through the process of painting.
Statement
Fitzgerald’s work creates suggestions of place and object, but also incorporates private sensation and experience.
Fitzgerald’s iconography originates in the everyday, an eclectic gathering of images, daily observations and random things seen, tangled with memory and recall. These ‘new realities’ with their combination of personal narrative, of momentary and fleeting images, are brought together, transformed and communicated through the process of painting. The work plays with our perceptions of literal and emotional space, revealing the extent to which we can never be certain of what we know, see or feel.
The process of revealing and concealing the narrative, of scraping back creates a history and archeology within each piece. Fitzgerald is also interested in how an images/objects meaning are transformed by their positioning together and placement in a public space. Each work enjoys both a tangible and a subliminal existence. The spaces and silences created in-between remain for the observer to explore.
BIO
Mary A. Fitzgerald was born in Dublin where she lives and works. She studied Fine Art both at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and The National College of Art and Design where she received an honors degree in Fine Art in 1989 and a Master of Fine Art in 2004.
Fitzgerald has been awarded both a Visual Arts Bursary, and Professional Development Grant from The Arts Council. She is a member of the Black Church Print Studio where she served as a board member for many years, two as chairperson.
Residency awards include, Clo Ceardlann, Donegal, three-year Studio Residency at Independent Studio Artists, Dublin, the Heinrich Boll Artists Residency and Cill Riallig Residency.
She is currently a lecturer at NCAD in First Year Art & Design and Fine Art Print
Recent Solo, Invited and Curated Shows:
2023
Compendium, Winter Group Show, Olivier Cornet Gallery
Dublin Art Book Fair, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios
RHA Annual
1515 Group Show, Olivier Cornet Gallery
2022
Swoon Solo Show, The Olivier Cornet Gallery, Associated Gallery Artist
Mini/Max Print Exhibition, Galleri Heike Arndt, Berlin
Dublin Art Book Fair, Temple Bar Gallery and Studios
Emerging Practice, BCPS 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Curated by Donna Romano NIVAL, The Library Project, Dublin.
RHA Annual
Outrageous, Obscene, & Offensive, Group Joyce Show, Olivier Cornet Gallery
2021
Morphing the Feminine, Group Exhibition, Oliver Cornet Gallery
2020
The Human Heart, Graphic Gallery, Dublin
RHA Annual, Dublin
Grafik från Irland, Galleri Helle, Knudsen in Stockholm
2019
ARTWORKS Visual, Carlow
Cairde Visual, The Model Sligo
2017
Claremorris Open Exhibition curated by Tom Morton, Frieze Magazine
2016
Enniskillen Visual Arts Open Exhibition
Rosebud, curated by Alison Pilkington & Cora Cummins, The Library Project, Dublin
Fitzgerald has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and her work is included in many public and private collections including: OPW, UCD, Trinity College Dublin, Bank de Paris, Microsoft Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and Axa Insurance. She has participated in the Artists in Prison scheme, and her public Art Project The Home Project, was included in the commissioned works by Breaking Ground, percent for art scheme, Ballymun. Fitzgerald regularly collaborates with Marc Reilly.
Mary A. Fitzgerald became a member of the Olivier Cornet Gallery AGA group in January 2020.