Ailbhe Ní Bhriain

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain (b. 1978, Clare, Ireland) is an Irish artist working with film, computer-generated imagery, collage, tapestry, print and installation. Ní Bhriain’s work is rooted in an exploration of imperial legacy, human displacement and the Anthropocene. These intertwined subjects are approached through an associative use of narrative and a deeply crafted visual language that verges on the surreal. She sidesteps directive positions and familiar binaries, exposing instead the layers of ambiguity and contradiction embedded in these fraught issues. The resulting worlds she creates are at once idiosyncratic, irresistible and unsettling. Her work has been exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and regularly involves collaboration with musicians and composers.

Ní Bhriain received a BA from the Crawford College of Art, Cork, an MA from the Royal College of Art, London and a PhD from Kingston University, UK. Her work has been exhibited widely at venues including Broad Art Museum, Michigan; the 16th Lyon Biennale, France; Gagosian–Deitch Projects, Miami; Irish Museum of Moden Art, Dublin; Whitechapel Gallery, London; Centre for Contemporary Art, Glasgow; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.

Recent projects include solo exhibitions at Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford; and Kunsthal Gent, Belgium, alongside group presentations at MAC Lyon, France; Innsbruck International Biennial, Austria; Lahore Biennale, Pakistan; Ulster Museum, Northern Ireland, and Lagos Photo Festival, Nigeria, among others. (All exhibitions 2024–25).

Her work is held in major private and public collections such as Dallas Museum of Art, MAC Lyon, The Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity College, Dublin Office of Public Works, Cork Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin Ulster Museum, Belfast and others.