Lara Quinn
Artist Bio
Based in Cork City, Lara Quinn is a recent graduate and emerging artist from Crawford College of Art and Design. She earned a First Class Honours in her undergraduate degree in Fine Art this past year, amongst several residencies and awards including the Student of the Year award with Lavit Gallery, a studio residency with Backwater Artists Group and a purchase prize by Cork City Council. Having first studied History of Art at University College Cork, Lara has developed extensive knowledge and experience in academic writing, culminating in her being awarded the Thesis Prize 2024 as a part of her Fine Art degree. After her time at UCC, Lara began to pursue her career as an artist. She enrolled with Cork College of FET where she was earned a QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Art and was awarded the Progressive Student Art Prize 2020/2021 alongside the Cork Printmakers Student Bursary 2020/2021. This experience along with her studies at Crawford College of Art and Design have forged a deep vocation to her career as a professional artist, with Lara hoping to further her education by enrolling in an MFA programme over the next few years.
Artist Statement
Based in the field of expanded painting, my visual practice investigates where the sacred worship of religious iconography intersects the secular viewing of art, subverting the gallery space into a site of worship.
My oil paintings demonstrate narratives of transformation, primarily concerned with rites of rebirth. Inspired by the ecclesiastical tradition of reliquaries, the explicit content of these paintings is guarded within protective, skeletal frames, made using sculptural processes I independently developed over the last year. Their design is inspired by religious ornamentation and rock formation found in caves. The texture of the frames imitates bone as a metaphor to convey a process of the internal becoming exposed. This corresponds with the fundamental motivation of my current practice, revealing the latent role of religious myth as an allegory for that which is inherently psychological and subjective.
By harnessing archetypal content rooted within mythology, I am conducting a demonstration of self- mythology in order to challenge what is truly considered ‘sacred’ in art. Within my paintings, I am projecting my likeness upon the fabled figure of Lilith, reclaiming her mythology in its association with biblical accounts of Genesis as a means to ultimately reinvent myself in the process. I contextualise this work as an installation that imitates a spiritual site akin to a tabernacle, rousing a cathartic ritual of rebirth between us both and reinforcing the proposed sanctity of this process.
Website www.laraquinn.ie
Instagram: @laraquinnart
Youtube: @laraquinnart
Membership: Backwater Artists Network & MTU CCAD Paint Store Bursary 
