About
Lauren Conway is a Dublin based visual artist who uses archival materials, documentation from site visits, and found images in her drawing, painting and installation processes in order to explore experiences of education in Ireland.
Conway graduated from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dún Laoghaire and has also studied at the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Royal Hibernian Academy School. In 2021 she was the recipient of the RHA Graduate Studio Award, The DLR/IADT Emerging Artist Bursary, and The Dock/IADT Graduate Award for her graduate exhibition A Great Public Meeting. In 2024 Conway was in residence at Studio Voltaire, London, developing a new body of work The Healing System which is the subject of a solo exhibition at the RHA, Dublin this spring. Recent exhibitions include Things Changed, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, (2024), Lockjaw, Ranelagh Arts, (2023), Remembering the Future, VISUAL Carlow (2023), A Great Public Meeting, The Dock (2022), Rendering New Realities, Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde (2021), and Karen, Ormond Art Studios (2021).
Conway graduated from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dún Laoghaire and has also studied at the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Royal Hibernian Academy School. In 2021 she was the recipient of the RHA Graduate Studio Award, The DLR/IADT Emerging Artist Bursary, and The Dock/IADT Graduate Award for her graduate exhibition A Great Public Meeting. In 2024 Conway was in residence at Studio Voltaire, London, developing a new body of work The Healing System which is the subject of a solo exhibition at the RHA, Dublin this spring. Recent exhibitions include Things Changed, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, (2024), Lockjaw, Ranelagh Arts, (2023), Remembering the Future, VISUAL Carlow (2023), A Great Public Meeting, The Dock (2022), Rendering New Realities, Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde (2021), and Karen, Ormond Art Studios (2021).
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.