New Elected RHA Member, Dorothy Cross

At the Academy’s Assembly held 12 July 2016, Dorothy Cross was elected an Associate Member of the RHA.
Dorothy Cross was born in 1956, Cork, Ireland. Working in sculpture, film and photography, Cross examines the relationship between living beings and the natural world. Living in Connemara, a rural area on Ireland’s west coast, the artist sees the body and nature as sites of constant change, creation and destruction, new and old. This flux emerges as strange and unexpected encounters. Many of Cross’ works incorporate items found on the shore, including boats and animal skins, while others reflect on the environment.

During the 1990s, she produced a series of works using cow udders, which drew on the animals' rich store of symbolic associations across cultures to investigate the construction of sexuality and subjectivity. In recent years, Cross’s practice has focused on nature and the ocean, working with maligned animals such as jellyfish and shark, and exploring rarely accessible areas like sea caves or shell grottos. Upcoming solo exhibitions include New Art Centre, Roche Court, UK, May 2017. Recent
solo exhibitions include Lismore Castle Arts, Ireland, 2014 and Turner Contemporary, UK, 2013, touring to RHA, Dublin, 2014. Cross has participated in the Venice Biennale, 1993, Istanbul Biennial, 1997 and Liverpool Biennial, 1998 and the groundbreaking 1994 exhibition Bad Girls, ICA London and CCA, Glasgow. Cross is included in the collections of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Norton Collection, Santa Monica; Art Pace Foundation, Texas; Goldman Sachs Collection, London; The Arnolfini Trust, Bristol and TATE, London.