Eileen MacDonagh

Eileen MacDonagh was born in Co.Sligo and has worked as a sculptor since the early 1980s. Her work has featured in exhibitions in Ireland, Portugal, Scotland, India and Japan. Eileen’s work is included in numerous collections, such as the OPW, Kilkenny and Cork County Councils, Marlay Park, Dublin and Tawara Newtown, Osaka, Japan.

Catherine Marshall, Head of Collections, Irish Museum of Modern Art, wrote in 2005 that “when MacDonagh talks about granite and limestone her language takes on a new dimension, introducing the listener to colour, texture, density and ultimately to the processes that working with them involve. ‘Granite is the noblest of stones’, she says, ‘just the toughness of it. Every time you strike the stone you make fire. Granite is volcanic, it was born of fire and you need fire to form it.’ She loves the challenge of working on a large scale, coaxing her vision out of unyielding, resistant stone. The circularity of the process, appeals to her sense of the invisible order that is a hall-mark of her work”.[2] .

MacDonagh works mainly in stone to produce large scale sculptures. Due to the scale of her work, she has tended to concentrate on Public Art Commissions although she has also exhibited in the context of the gallery exhibitions. She received a Diploma in Sculpture at the School of Art, Regional Technical College, Sligo, Ireland (1974–79) and an Art Teachers Certificate from the Limerick School of Art & Design (1979–80).[1] MacDonagh has continued through her career as a sculptor taking on large scale projects, and has built up a large body of public art since across Ireland and in other countries. She has also organised and participated in many symposia in Ireland and abroad.

Working locally to Carlow for over twenty-five years MacDonagh recently returned to her native Sligo. While in Carlow working in national and international contexts, she also made a tremendous contribution to the arts locally. Her efforts in helping with the organising of Éigse are well known, and ‘The Medusa Tree’ (2009) for VISUAL, The Contemporary Art Centre, is an important contribution to public art in Carlow. Her exhibition LITHOSPHERE (VISUAL, 2012) presented new work by the artist and surveyed a career dedicated to the tender command of elements; stone, timber and the geometries found in nature and her expertise when working with scale.

Art collection

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Origins

Set up in 1992, The Carlow Art Collection is a voluntary community initiative that has been surrounded by goodwill and generosity from the people of Carlow. It has expanded into a diverse collection of work with artists from around the world. CAC became a fully registered charity in 2018. The home of our art collection is in Carlow College. The Carlow Art Collection is free to view in the front halls of Carlow College, Monday to Friday, and in the garden every day of the year.

Today

The art works in the permanent collection include painting, print, drawing, sculpture, sound, photography, live art, film and activism, with more to come. The collection and CAC projects reflect a broad range of art by over thirty artists, many of whom visited, exhibited, engaged with or lived in the area.

Our Goal

The CAC is deeply indebted to the artists who contribute to the collection, to its board members past and present, and to the many people and organisations that support it technically and financially. The Carlow Art Collection will continue to expand on the ideas of what art is and what an art collection can be, and become.