Diana Copperwhite RHA lives and works in Dublin. In her paintings, Copperwhite explores the relationship between colours, gestures, figuration, and representation, harmonizing different visual strategies on the canvas. She amalgamates images from the internet, photographs, and real life, unifying these sources in paintings that critically assess the medium’s ability to represent images, sensations, and ideas. “Painting is so physical but has the potential to do something very different to other media.
Copperwhite was awarded the AIB Art Prize in 2007, which resulted in a major monograph and touring exhibition of her work. Her publication Fake New World was published to coincide with a wall drawing and exhibition at the RHA Gallery and her Solo Show Depend on the Morning Sun at 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York in 2017, it features a recent biography written by Gail Levin, Edward Hopper’s Official Biographer.
She has been reviewed widely both in Ireland and abroad most recently in Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, Art Forum, The Irish Times and The Sunday Times amongst others. She was a resident artist at the Josef Albers Foundation Connecticut (2012). She was a finalist in the Guasch Coranty Fundacio Painting Prize, Centre Cultural Metropolita Tecia Sala, Barcelona (2008) and was the winner of the AIB Art Prize (2007). She has delivered lectures on her work for Lehman College CUNY, New York and Turps Banana London during lockdown as well as talks for IMMA, the RHA, the Glucksman Cork, University of Western Australia at Parramatta, amongst others.
Recent solo exhibitions include Vanishing Apertures, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2021), Works on Paper, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin (2021), Proto Fiction and the Sleep of Reason, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2019), The Clock Struck Between Time, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York, 2019) Crooked Orbit, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2018), Driven by Distraction, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2016), Depend on the Morning Sun, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, New York (2017) A Million and One Things Under the Sun, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2015) and Pulse Projects Solo Presentation, New York, 2015 where she was nominated for the Pulse Prize.
Recent selected and upcoming group shows include, New Acquisitions,The Dublin City Gallery,The Hugh Lane, (2022), Who do we think we are, The Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame University, Indiana, (2022), New Perspectives, The National Gallery of Ireland (2021), PRISM, The Glucksman, Cork, (2019), The Rothko Centre, Daugavpils, Latvia, (2018), Bounty, Aileen Murphy/Diana Copperwhite, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin (2018), HOME, More than Bricks and Mortar – Works from the IMMA collection, Dra ocht, Dublin (2018) Hell’s Kitchen, Thomas Jaeckel (off site), New York (2018) Double Vision,, DLR Lexicon, Co. Dublin (2018) Last Picture Show w/Mary Heilmann, Chris Ofili, Danny Rolph, Vanessa Jackson, Elio Rodriguez, Jill Levine, Rebecca Smith, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, New York (2017) and Virtu, with work by, Picasso, Giacometti, Henry Moore, Elizabeth Magill and Sean Scully at the Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland (2017).
Copperwhite’s work is held in numerous public and private collections including:The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, The National Gallery of Ireland, The British Library, The Arts Council of Ireland, Limerick City Gallery of Art, Office of Public Works, Contemporary Irish Art Society, Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery, Mariehamn Stadbiblioteque, Aland (Finland), The Technological University of Dublin and The President of Ireland.