Amanda Coogan

Performance is at the heart of Coogan’s art, and her powerful live events often form the basis for her videos and photographs. She has a real ability to condense an idea and to communicate it through her body.

The performances are short, snappy and sassy, reflecting MTV generation values. She has her finger on the pulse of the modern psyche that allows her to connect with her audience. Sometimes the work paraphrases iconic images, like the sacred heart or Michelanglo’s David, but the artist jolts her audience into finding new meaning in the familiar.

Coogan studied sculpture in NCAD in Ireland and an M.A. in Performance Art in Germany with Marina Abramovic. She performed in ‘Marking the Territories’ at the Irish Museum of Modern Art 2001 and was an award winner at EV+A 2002, Limerick. She was selected by the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, for the Eurojets Futures exhibition in the same year. In 2003 Coogan performed at the Venice Biennale and at the P.A.C. Gallery, Milan.

In 2004 Coogan was The Ailled Irish Bank ‘Annual Artist of Promise’ winner. She exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art’s Artists4Amnesty exhibition, The Liverpool Biennial International 04 and had a solo show at the Context Gallery as part of their Joyce festival. She also Performed in Performance loop, PS1 New York and at Cleaning the House NMAC, Malaga.

In January of 2005 Coogan published the first catalogue on her work in conjunction with her solo show A brick in the handbag shown in Limerick City Gallery of Art and now here at Void. This year she has also performed at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam as part of their Schiele exhibition and exhibited at the MARTa Museum’s inaugral exhibition Heroes.