Awarded the R.C. Lewis-Crosby Award €5,000
Ava is graduated from TUS Limerick School of Art and Design in 2024. She is a visual artist working primarily in painting. Her work explores the human body, physicality within relationships and the self, and the interplay between the corporeal body and the concept of ‘home,’ capturing an overarching sense of intimacy through the work.
She considers these concepts primarily through the use and lens of nakedness, intending to pictorially reveal the internal. Exposing private moments and delving into the detail of an experience. The pieces often work to describe the occasion when one thing or person interacts with another, at times examining an ‘after moment’ instead of the moment itself to encourage a sense of reflection.
These queer intimate female-centric naked works aim to both work in and against the traditional nude genre and ideas of conventional viewership. Conveying identity and queerness, while questioning viewership, voyeurism and the male gaze.
Commenting on Ava’s work, the 2024 RDS VAA judging panel said;
“Ava produces a complete body of work that demonstrates an emotional intimacy. Her beautiful composition is a gorgeous tender study of a woman’s body by another woman. She is very assured and emotionally engaged in her practice which brings this body of work beyond just being so technically assured.
Image: Ava Lowry, Wrapping II, Image courtesy of the artist.
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