Rosie McGurran is a visual artist who lives and works in a remote village on the West coast of Ireland. Originally from Belfast in Northern Ireland she studied fine art at the University of Ulster. She curates The Inishlacken Project, an island based visual arts project honouring artists from the past who lived and worked there whilst creating a forum for collaboration and exhibition with contemporary artists. Rosie McGurran has completed residencies at the British School at Rome, The Arthur Boyd Centre, NSW, Australia, The Dunmoochin Foundation, Victoria, Australia, the British Embassy Reykjavik, Iceland and B.A.G Studios, New York. She is a member of the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts and exhibits regularly in Ireland and internationally.
Rosie McGurran’s work concerns itself mostly with the place where she lives, Roundstone village and the island of Inishlacken. She creates a world outside of obvious landscape placing imaginary figures throughout often at night and always connected to the sea. The role of the sea in life in Ireland has been diminished by modern life, people now are finding new ways to live from what was once an obvious source of sustenance. McGurran questions this alongside creating a kind of magical realism where another community of created characters live and work and interact.
In recent years, Rosie McGurran has exhibited and curated group shows with the Inishlacken Project at the Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse ,New York and the Galway Arts Centre. She is represented by the Peppercanister Gallery , Dublin, where she has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions. She is also represented by the Cavehill Gallery, Belfast and The Lavelle Gallery, Clifden, County Galway. During the summer months Rosie McGurran opens the doors of her studio in Roundstone to the public and regularly exhibits at Clifden Arts Week. She was elected to full membership of the Royal Ulster Academy in 2011 and is currently preparing to exhibit at the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin in May of this year.