​

AUSTIN MCQUINN

​

Visual Artist and Writer in the fields of Visual Culture, Performance Studies, Human-Animal Cultural Studies, the History of Art and Contemporary Art Theory and Studio Practice.

 

Committed to ongoing original research at the intersections of visual culture and performance, bio-politics, cultural anthropology, posthumanism, performance philosophy and creative arts and performance practices.

 

Studio practice includes Irish and international Solo and Selected group exhibitions, major Public sculpture Commissions, commissioned Exhibitions and installations, projects in Arts in the Community, Arts in Healthcare, supported by local authorities, the Arts Council and Culture Ireland and Private Collections.

 

 

 

Solo Exhibitions:

2023    Imperial Lunatic, 24hr Live Art Performance, STAC Chapel

2023    Some signs are secret, some manifest, South Tipperary Arts Centre

2020     Hypercarbon, The Source Arts Centre, Thurles, Co.Tipperary

2018      Vesper, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork

2008     Lammermoor, Butler Gallery of Contemporary Art,

                Kilkenny Castle.

2007     The Force of Destiny, David Cunningham Projects,

                San Francisco, California.

2007     Virtuoso, New Langton Arts, San Francisco, CA.

2005     Ape Opera House, ESB Power House Cork.

                Commissioned by Cork European City of Culture

2002     Virtuoso, Project, Dublin, Ireland.

                Commissioned by International Dance Festival Ireland

2000     Idyll, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland

1997       Oración de la Santa Muerte, Delfina Studios Trust, Manilva, Spain

1994       New Work, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, County Cork.

1993       Austin McQuinn, Project Arts Centre, Dublin.

1991        Occupied Territories, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork.

 

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2017       One off, Curated exhibition Bankside Gallery, London

2011        Three Colours:Red, SOMA, Waterford

2010       Dust in the Air Suspended, South Tipperary County Museum

2010       Inner Lives, Town Hall Gallery, Macroom, Cork

2009      Jigsawmentalama, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco

2009      Café Carte Blanche, Junction Festival, Clonmel, Tipperary

2009      Mapping the Island, XL Atrium, Hobart, Tasmania

2007      Animal Rites, David Cunningham Projects, San Francisco, California

2007      An Other Place, Salamanca Arts Centre Hobart, Tasmania

2005      Locale, Gurteen Agricultural College, Nenagh

2003      Dearcadh /Visionaries of 1798- 1803, Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin.

2003     +system, International Short Video, BizArt Art Centre, Shanghai

2003      6x6 for Ireland, Academy of Fine Arts, Hangzhou, China

2002      The Print Show, South Tipperary Arts Centre,

1999       EV+A 99  City Gallery, Limerick, Ireland.

                The Sky Chair, Project@ the Mint, Dublin, Ireland

1995       Compulsive Objects, Rubicon Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

1994       Young European Painters, Hangarm Gallery, Seoul, Korea

1992        LEurope Dart D’art, Niort, France

1991        Cork Artists Collective, Crawford Gallery, Cork, Ireland.

1990       Victor Treacy Award Exhibition, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle.

 

Public Commissions:

2010      Hearts of Kind and Kin, Cork University Hospital, HSE.

2005    The Session, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

2000    MoDomnoc, Piltown/Fiddown, County Kilkenny.

1998      Evolution, Three Bullet Gate, New Ross, County Wexford.

1995      Undertow, The Pier, Dingle, County Kerry.

1994      Axis, Courthouse Square, Maynooth, County Kildare.

1992      Natural Histories, Blessington Street Basin, Broadstone, Dublin,

 

 

Awards and residencies:

​

2022     Bursary, The Arts Council

2021      Agility Award, The Arts Council

2008    South Tipperary County Council Artists Award

2007     Multi-annual Bursary, The Arts Council

2006    The AIB Prize, finalist

2000    Irish Artist-in Residence, World Expo 2000, Hanover, Germany

               Artflight Award, Arts Council/Aer Lingus

               Arts Council/Artists-in Schools Residency

1997      The Delfina Studios Trust, Manilva, Spain

1995      Bursary in Visual Arts, The Arts Council

               Materials Grant, The Arts Council

1992      The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annamakerrig, County Monaghan

1991       Artist in Residence, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork

           

Collections:

The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion

The Delfina Studios Trust, London

The Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annamakerring

Kildare County Council

Kerry County Council

Kilkenny County Council

Private Collections in Ireland, UK, UAE and USA

 

 

Conferences, essays, papers:

 

Book Publication Essays;

2018 ‘Becoming Enth: The Immensity of the Intimate in the work of Bernadette Cotter.’ Published by Limerick City Gallery of Art.

 

2018 ‘Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Mermaid: Alice Maher and Hydrofeminism’

Published by the Source Arts Centre, Thurles.

 

2015 University of Sheffield,

Animal Machines: Animals and/as Technology. (Delegate)

 

Conferences, contd:

2014 Roehampton University London, Animal Encounters (Delegate)

 

2013 Cambridge University, UK . (Speaker)

International Society for Anthrozoology

Title: “Other voices; nonhuman acoustics in performance”

 

2013 Leeds University, UK. (Speaker)

Performance Studies international

Title “Downloading a Swan: Animal rendition in technoculture”

 

2012 Institute of English Studies, University of London, UK.

Cosmopolitan Animals. (Delegate)

 

2011 University College London. Animal Ecologies (Delegate)

 

 

Professional Memberships:

Performance Philosophy (University of Surrey)

Performance Studies international

The Live Art Development Agency, London

The National Sculpture Factory Cork (former Board member)

The Butler Gallery of Contemporary Art Kilkenny (former Board member)

Visual Artists Ireland

 

 

 

 

Professional Qualifications:

 

PhD, Thesis-led Doctorate in Performance and Visual Cultures

University of Roehampton London, 2016

 

Thesis title: ‘Acoustic Creatures: Human and animal entanglements in performance’.

 

Supervisors:

Professor Jennifer Parker-Starbuck, Head of Dept, Performance Studies,

University of Roehampton, London.

 

Professor Garry Marvin, Cultural Anthropologist, Dept of Life Sciences,

University of Roehampton, London.

 

Examiners:

Steve Baker, Professor Emeritus of Art History School of Humanities

University of Central Lancashire, UK

 

Dr PA Skantze,

Reader in Performance Practices, University of Roehampton, London

 

Thesis Synopsis:

Informed by the writings of Gilles Deleuze, Mladen Dolar, and Donna Haraway my thesis specifically questioned the forms and functions of animal acoustics in arts and performance practices where, I argued, the ‘animal’ voice functions as a porous, resonant medium of becoming and immanence, a conduit of both similarity and difference, and a means of unsettling human exceptionalism in a time of urgent re-evaluation of interspecies relations. I questioned what is at stake in human-animal histories, becomings and cultural expressions of interspecies pasts and futures, by artists, in our time. This theory-led thesis interrogated the material and symbolic presences of animalities in contemporary and historical visual culture: in the languages and forms of theatre and opera, in formal language of the life sciences and narratives of cultural anthropology and primatology, in live performance art, sculptural installation, film and visual art.

 

 

 

 

1989   BA Fine Art, Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork

1985    Foundation, Dun Laoghaire School of Art and Design

 

 

Previous Teaching:

1998-2013,  Waterford Institute of Technology,

Assistant Lecturer, Dept of Creative and Performing Arts

 

Recent Teaching:

2016 -2018,  Goldsmiths, University of London.

Associate Lecturer, Dept of Visual Cultures.