About
Lauren Conway is a Dublin based visual artist who uses archival materials,
documentation from site visits, and found images from her teenage years, in her
drawing and installation processes in order to explore experiences of education in
Ireland. Conway is the recipient of The Arts Council Bursary Award 2022, The Arts
Council Agility Award 2022, The DLR/IADT Emerging Artist Bursary 2021, The
Dock/IADT Graduate Award 2021 and RHA Graduate Studio Award 2021 for her
graduate exhibition A Great Public Meeting.
Recent exhibitions include A Great Public Meeting, the Dock (2022), Pallas Projects Periodical Review, PP+S (2021), Rendering New Realities, Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde (2021), The RDS Visual Awards, RHA (2021) and Karen, Ormond Art Studios (2021).
Her writings have been published in Bloomers Art Magazine (2021) and in the online programme for cruxproject.net (2020). She is currently in residence at the RHA, Dublin, and is a member of Ormond Art Studios, Dublin and previously the Douglas Hyde Student Forum III.
Recent exhibitions include A Great Public Meeting, the Dock (2022), Pallas Projects Periodical Review, PP+S (2021), Rendering New Realities, Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde (2021), The RDS Visual Awards, RHA (2021) and Karen, Ormond Art Studios (2021).
Her writings have been published in Bloomers Art Magazine (2021) and in the online programme for cruxproject.net (2020). She is currently in residence at the RHA, Dublin, and is a member of Ormond Art Studios, Dublin and previously the Douglas Hyde Student Forum III.
Statement
Through the process of drawing Conway seeks to tease out a commonality between collective memories of being a participant within public educational spaces. A running concern throughout her work is a desire to explore empty educational spaces that question and challenge aspirational promises put forward by the state through formal education. However, once students, teachers and communities fill these spaces the promises made are not always delivered upon and the fallibility of the architectural ideals become apparent. The work opens up a space for further connections to be made beyond the educational; through the use of public archival materials, documentation from site visits, and found images from her teenage years.
Conway explores tensions between the empty school sites and the sensitive, exploratory and emotionally dense photographs, writings, drawings and worldviews of those that inhabit them. Her current work in progress is a collaborative drawing project with her nineteen year old brother, a current first year student at St.Johns Central College Cork; approached with a pre-emptive concern that he may be magic.