How people live and what drives individuals and societies lie at the heart of Elaine Byrne’s art. Working with video, photography and sculpture, Byrne examines the unstable relationship between fact and fiction, probing the depth of secrecy with which narratives are imbued, providing the forms through which imagination can be revealed and alternative scenarios envisaged. Recent video works Pure Codology (2015) and Rakoczy’s March (2015) examine the untranslatable, alluding to the mysterious and layered meanings in James Joyce’s Ulysses. Byrne’s excavations expose the fact that populations are excluded and misunderstood; they propose different renderings and potential meanings which demonstrate the complexity of inter-cultural discussion.

Dublin visual artist, Elaine Byrne exhibits at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Working in New York for the last two years she completed the Whitney Independent Study Program, New York (September 2014-May 2015). She won the TINA prize (2015) to produce a solo show in Rome in 2016. She also won 8th Arte Laguna sculpture prize for her sculpture RAUM which was exhibited in Venice Arsanale (2014). Solo shows include Limerick City Gallery, September 2014 (which was ArtForum critic’s pick); UAM, Mexico, November 2014; Oonagh Young Gallery (Dublin 2011). Group shows include EFA (New York June 2015), Douglas Hyde Gallery (Dublin), Budapest & Colorado. Awards include emerging photography prize (RHA 2012), Arts Council Project Award (2014), Culture Ireland funding award. Residencies include ISCP, New York (2014), Aeskeaton (2012), and  SOMA, Mexico (2010).