Alice Maher

Alice Maher (born 1956) born at Kilmoyler, near Bansha, County Tipperary, Ireland, is a noted artist who uses a wide variety of media including sculpture, photography and installation.

Education

Alice Maher received her early education at Ballydrehid National School and at Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cahir. She later graduated from the University of Limerick and the Crawford College of Art in Cork. Then she undertook an MA at the University of Ulster, Belfast from 1985-86. She spent time in San Francisco Art Institute in 1986 as a Fulbright Scholar.

Works

File:The Axe (and the Waving Girl), Dublin, October 2010 (02).JPG

The Axe (and the Waving Girl) by Alice Maher, 2003

Alice Maher is a contemporary Irish artist who works in a wide range of media, often from outside the tradition of fine art and more from the natural and domestic world, such as hair, nettles, bees, thorns. More recently she returns to her roots in drawing and videos of her drawings. She has been adventurous in her explorations of themes of childhood and death, such as Mnemosyne, 2003, wherein she creates a bedlike structure constructed from refrigerator coils; when the coils become frosty they gleam a brilliant, luminous white sheen. She is interested in how identities, particularly gendered identities, are constructed from the peculiar texture history and culture give to artefacts that surround us.

Exhibitions

The artist's work was the subject of a survey show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2012 titled Becoming. The exhibition took place in the IMMA's temporary location at Earlsfort Terrace as the museum was undergoing renovations at the time.

Maher represented Ireland at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1994.

Collaborations

Alice Maher has collaborated with artists from a range of disciplines. She has collaborated with composer Trevor Knight since 1999. Knight produces the soundtracks for her animated videos. Visitant, a live show combining dance, music and visual art, was a collaboration between Alice Maher, Trevor Knight, Butoh dancer Gyohei Zaitsu and musician Áine O’Dwyer. Visitant was performed at the Project Arts Centre in 2014.

Maher's film Cassandra’s Necklace, produced for her retrospective exhibition at IMMA, was based on an unpublished script by Irish writer Anne Enright and features the actress Charlie Murphy .

Publications

Maher's book Reservoir (Dublin: Roads Publishing, 2014) brought the collection of sketchbooks that she has created over many years to the public's attention for the first time.

Work in collections or on display

• The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
• The Arts Council of Ireland including
  • Nettle Coat (1996)
• The Crawford Gallery, Cork, including
  • Irish Dancers (1992)
• Fairytale Wall (2002), Special Investigation Unit, Level 2, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast

Further reading

• Allen Randolph, Jody. "Alice Maher, August 2009." Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland. Manchester: Carcanet, 2010.
• Barber, Fiona. Familiar [essay]. Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery; Derry: Orchard Gallery, 1995.
• Bourne, Cecile. Familiar [interview]. Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery; Derry: Orchard Gallery, 1995.
• Deepwell, Katy. "Alice Maher." Dialogues: Women Artists from Ireland. London: IB Tauris, 2005.
• Dickinson, Sheila. ‘Alice Maher, Rood’, Circa Magazine (Winter 2005), No. 114, pp. 86 – 87.
• Ruane, Mebd. 'A Sting in the Tail.' Profile: Alice Maher. Cork: Gandon Editions, 1998. 5-10.

External links and references

• Official website
• Alice Maher at Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
• Aosdána short biography
• Isabel Nolan (2003) review of Mnemosyne in Circa 104.
• Chérie Driver (2003) review of Portraits in Circa 106.
• Dorothy Walker (2002) Maher, Alice in Brian Lalor (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 0-7171-3000-2