Amanda Dunsmore works in art processes that explore representations of societal transformation through contextual portraiture and social historic projects. Her artworks utilize media such as video, sound, photography and installation. Dunsmore’s accumulative legacy practice examines place, people and moments of political significance. Her contextual portraits evolve through long periods of research and the work is often presented as a series of extensive socio-political and historical sculptural, video and drawing based exhibitions. Central to Dunsmore's art practice is an exploration of potential future memory, the legacy of visual parity in portraiture and the long-term implications of socio-political art making.
In 1998/1999, Dunsmore was artist in residence at The Maze/Long Kesh prison, in Northern Ireland. In 2012, she was commissioned as artist in residence working with Galway County and City older LGBTQ+ Community, which led to the major art project BECOMING CHRISTINE.
The exhibition MEMENTO – AGREEMENT showed at the Ulster University Gallery and is a series of 14 prints based on Amanda Dunsmore’s recollections of making the silent filmed portraits which comprise the artwork AGREEMENT (2004-2023).
A monumental, special 3-screen presentation of AGREEMENT was shown in April this year, in Belfast. Over the summer this special configuration, unique to GFA25, will travel across Northern Ireland. The 3-screen configuration creates a physical and conceptual ‘space’ for civic refection and acts as a ‘pivot’ to working with six communities on the heritage of the Belfast 'Good Friday' Agreement during this 25th anniversary year. This special 3-screen exhibition forms part of a nationwide project in partnership with the National Lottery Heritage Fund, working with six communities on the heritage of the Belfast 'Good Friday' Agreement during it's 25th anniversary year.
Dunsmore’s work has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, The British Council, Belfast City Council, Dublin City Council, Galway County and City Council and Culture Ireland. Amanda studied at the Newport College of Further Education, South Wales, 1986-87, at the Ulster University, Belfast, 1987-1991 and the University of Limerick, 1999-2000. She lives in County Clare and is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Limerick School of Art and Design, TUS, Ireland.
She has exhibited widely, including The Hugh Lane Gallery and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), Dublin and internationally in Reykjavik, Chicago, Aabenraa, Sydney, Genève, Berlin, Dresden, Derry/Londonderry, London, Weimar, Linz, and Melbourne. Her artworks featured in public collections including the University of Limerick; Ireland's National Collection through the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork; The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; The Arts Council, Ireland; ACC Galerie, Germany; Galway County Council and The Ulster Museum and Linen Hall Museum, Belfast.
Amanda Dunsmore is represented by ACC Galerie Weimar, Germany for the major public artwork PLAN. Over the past fifteen years, she has collaborated with KunstRaum xtd, a social practice organisation and gallery in Linz, Austria.
Contact: hello@amandadunsmore.com