The RHA is delighted to announce the recipient of the 2018 Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Travel Bursary, Leah Hewson.
The €2,500 bursary is awarded to enable Irish artists to further their studies abroad. This scholarship is awarded in memory of Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, a lifelong friend and supporter of the visual arts in Ireland.
The Purser family, into which Elizabeth was born in 1904, was one of a Dublin circle with many artistic affiliations. Between 1930 and 1980 she moved in this circle which included Sarah Purser – her great aunt, Jack Yeats, ‘A.E.’, Mainie Jellett and Mary Swanzy.
Previous recipients of the Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Travel Bursary are: Leda Scully, Amy O’Riordan, Hugh McCarthy, Simon McWilliams, Tony O’Malley, Eamonn O’Kane, Catherine Harper, Sanja Todorovic, Damien Flood and Síghle Bhreathnach-Cashell.
Hewson’s artistic career began with a First-Class BA(Hons) degree in Fine Art at Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design & Technology, Dublin in 2010. Since then, she has accomplished four solo exhibitions, the most notable of these were Ammo Veil at The Hillsboro Fine Art gallery in July 2018 and Scintilla at RHA, February 2017. This was the culmination of work produced during a six-month residency at the RHA School.
Hewson has been shortlisted for the Hennessy Craig Bienniel Award and won the Special Prize for Contemporary Art at the Biennial of Humour and Satire in Art, Bulgaria, 2017. Her work continues to be internationally collected by private collectors in New York, Australia, Germany, France, Norway, and Spain. Other collections include The Trinity College Dublin History of Art collection, The Office of Public Works, Dublin, The Law Society of Ireland, and the Microsoft Collection. Hewson is currently on a six month residency at the NARS Foundation in Brooklyn New York which will finish in March 2019.
Image: Leah Hewson.
