Artist Bio

Amira McDonagh (b. 1987, Belfast) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working in County Down, Northern Ireland.

She completed a degree in Fine Art at Cardiff School of Art. After graduating in 2011, she returned home to Northern Ireland and began pursuing her practice. Her predominant medium and output has always been oil painting. Taking a hiatus from 2016 – 2020, upon returning to her practice, she unearthed its real essence; catharsis.

Her work centres around the exploration of past lived experiences, trauma and venturing to the core of her heritage. She has focused on building this thread since 2021 with her painting ‘Nightingale 2020’ which was selected for the Royal Ulster Academy’s 140^th annual exhibition in the Ulster Museum, Belfast. It evolved in 2022 into a commissioned public sculpture, a project associated with Northern Ireland Hospice and most recently, in April 2023, culminated in the presentation of her second solo exhibition ‘On My Way Here’ at Down Arts Centre, Downpatrick.

In February 2024, Amira completed a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Monaghan, Republic of Ireland, to develop work for her self staged solo show in May; 'Family Trees & Six Degrees'. In the same month, one of her mixed media pieces was shortlisted for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.