Diana Copperwhite
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Winchester School of Art
Limerick School of Art and Design
Diana Copperwhite | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1969 (age 56–57) |
| Alma mater | National College of Art and Design Winchester School of Art Limerick School of Art and Design |
| Known for | oil painting |
| Style | Abstract expressionism |
| Elected | Aosdána (2021) |
| Website | dianacopperwhite |
Diana Copperwhite RHA (born 1969) is an Irish painter.[1] She is a member of Aosdána, an elite Irish association of artists.[2][3] She lives and works in Dublin and New York City.[4]
Copperwhite was born in Limerick in 1969.[5][6] She grew up in Patrickswell. Her father, Patrick Copperwhite, was a science teacher and self-taught artist who exhibited at the Oriel Gallery.[7] She studied at Limerick School of Art and Design, the National College of Art and Design (NCAD, Dublin) and Winchester School of Art.[8]
Career
Copperwhite is chiefly known for her work in oil painting; art critic Gail Levin says that her work "creates an exquisite tension between abstraction and figuration or representation of any kind. […] vibrating spectral bands have become a kind of a trademark in Copperwhite’s recent large paintings […] Copperwhite believes that in her paintings she has responded to Ireland’s changeable weather, which may have caused her to see the world as if she was looking through a visor into a “grey low-light vision."[9] She has also named 1960s psychedelic album covers as inspiration.[10]
In a 2017 review for Hyperallergic, Copperwhite’s work was described as employing multicolored, banded brushstrokes that create gradient effects.The review noted that her paintings combine elements of abstract expressionism with a contemporary visual language influenced by digital aesthetics, and that they often incorporate fragmentary figurative forms within complex, layered compositions.[11]
She has lectured at NCAD, Western Sydney University and the University of Massachusetts; she was elected to Aosdána in 2021.[12]
In 2025, Copperwhite’s work was included in a Stoney Road Press exhibition at the Clifden Arts Festival, where her paintings were presented as fine art prints produced in collaboration with Stoney Road Press.[13]
Selected exhibitions
Solo
- 2026: The Only Thing Is The Everything, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin[14][15]
- 2024: Onomatopoeia, Flowers Gallery, London[16]
- 2024 Born in the Echoes (two-person exhibition), day01 Gallery, Sydney, Australia[17]
- 2023: Onomatopoeia, presented at Limerick City Gallery of Art;[18] Highlanes Gallery;[19] and Galway International Arts Festival[20]
- 2019: The Clock Struck between time, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York[21]
- 2018: Double Vision (two-person exhibition), Municipal Gallery, DLR Lexicon, Dublin
- 2018: Bounty (two-person exhibition), Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin[22]
- 2016: Depend on the morning sun, Thomas Jaeckel gallery, New York[23]
- 2016: Driven by Distraction, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin[24]
Group
- 2025: TRUE COLOUR, Kevin Kavanagh, Dublin[25]
- 2024: Shelter, Shell/Ter Collective, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin[26]
- 2024: Supernova, Flowers Gallery, London[27]
- 2019: Vision X, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin[28]
- 2018: Prism: The Art and Science of Light, The Glucksman, Cork[29]
- 2017: Many Worlds, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris[30]
- 2011: The Fold: A Painting Show, Visual Centre for Contemporary Art, Carlow[31]
