Léann Herlihy [1994; they/them] is an artist, researcher and educator based in Dublin.
Their practice is informed by trans*, queer ecological, feminist and abolitionist theoretical frameworks which deploys alternative modalities of expression through an array of mediums including live performance, video, billboards, sculpture, text, workshops and radical pedagogies.
Rigorously and creatively critiquing the positioning of Otherness in a heteronormative society, Léann actively transgresses beyond ‘Other’ as another tick-box option to choose from and moves to explore the generative capacity of collective engagement and resistance when we abolish colonial and capitalist prescriptions of personhood, the body and gender.
Employing a methodology of interdisciplinary collaboration, their practice actively de-centres the author and strives for multiplicity over a single narrative. Through this methodology, time and space become shared communal resources between an array of individuals as the parameters of individualism are resisted through a process of imagining how a collective might begin to live Otherwise.
Originally from Waterford, Léann Herlihy holds an MA in Gender Studies from University College Dublin and a BA in Sculpture, Performance and Spatial Awareness from the University of Arts Poznań, Poland. Recent solo exhibitions include the middle of nowhere, Project Arts Centre, Dublin [2022]; Beyond Survival School Bus, Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin [2022]; STUNTMAN, ]performance space[, London [2020]; Trojan Horse, STROBOSKOP Art Space, Warsaw [2019]. Select group exhibitions include The Gleaners Society, 40th EVA International, Limerick [2023]; Reflex Blue, Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, Dublin [2023]; Slow Sunday, Artsadmin, Toynbee Studios, London [2020];
Léann Herlihy is a lecturer at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. They are the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland’s Next Generation Artist Award [2022], Visual Arts Bursary [2021; 2023] & Agility Award [2021; 2022] as well as being awarded a Three Year Residency [2024-27] at Temple Bar Gallery + Studios.
Exhibit #
to be nowhere
to be nowhere (2022) is part of Léann’s larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere, an ongoing series of (non)site-specific public interventions and actions in Dublin in 2022. This vinyl installation takes stylistic references from alt-text. Alt-text is a written description of an image posted online and is an essential part of web accessibility. Alt-text […]
September 21 – December 1
Exhibit #
to be nowhere
to be nowhere (2022) is part of Léann’s larger transdisciplinary project the middle of nowhere, an ongoing series of (non) site-specific public interventions and actions in Dublin in 2022. For the 2024 Biennial, the work takes transitory forms within our main exhibition hub in downtown Toronto, including a photograph presented as a billboard. The main […]
September 21 – December 1
