Shani Rhys James studied at Loughborough and St. Martin’s College of art, London. Her two Carlow shows stand out vividly in the memory of all who experienced them. The directness and honesty, “the humane”, in her work was commented on when she won the most coveted prize in painting the Jerwood Prize for Painting, from a field that included major figures such as Marc Vaux and Alison Watt. Other major prizes include the Hunting Prize and the National Portrait Award. Recently her work was purchased for important public collections including the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art, The Arts Council of England and the National Museum of Wales. Rhys James was an Invited Artist at Éigse’s thirty-year retrospective at VISUAL Carlow in 2010.