Mary A. Fitzgerald

Biography

Mary A. Fitzgerald was born in Dublin where she lives and works. She studied Fine Art both at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology and The National College of Art and Design where she received an honors degree in Fine Art in 1989 and a Master of Fine Art in 2004. Fitzgerald has been awarded both a Visual Arts Bursary, and Professional Development Grant from The Arts Council. She is a member of Artist Panel at IMMA. She is also a member of the Black Church Print Studio where she served as a board member for many years, two as chairperson. Residency awards include, Clo Ceardlann, Donegal, three year Studio Residency at Independent Studio Artists, Dublin, the Heinrich Boll Artists Residency and Cill Riallig Residency. She is a lecturer in First Year Art & Design and Fine Art Print at NCAD.

Statement

Fitzgerald’s practice initially had a primary focus in the medium of printmaking. In recent years, however her work has expanded in methodology and interest to include painting, video and installation. She collaborates regularly with the artist Marc Reilly and has worked in community contexts throughout her career. Fitzgerald’s work creates suggestions of place and object, but also incorporates private sensation and experience. Fitzgerald’s iconography originates in the everyday, an eclectic gathering of images, daily observations and random things seen, tangled with memory and recall. These ‘new realities’ with their combination of personal narrative, of momentary and fleeting images, are brought together, transformed and communicated through the process of painting. The work plays with our perceptions of literal and emotional space, revealing the extent to which we can never be certain of what we know, see or feel. The experience of looking is not only based on what you see with your eyes – the immediate sensation of something – but also how personal history, individual understanding and internal thought process alter what is perceived.