Born, Galway Ireland.
Lives and works in Belfast.
Photographer | Art and Design Research Institute
Lecturer in Photography | BA(Hons)/MFA Photography Campus + ELearning, Belfast School of Art, Ulster University.
Ailbhe’s work has been exhibited and published both nationally and internationally, most recently in Belfast, Liverpool, London, New York and Paris. The work ‘Street Flower’, created as part of a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris, directs attention to possibilities within her work-in-progress ‘The Arrangement’ (from Flower Arrangement), of which it is the first chapter. Its selection as one of 50 pieces, out of over 700 international submissions, for Photography Is Magic, places the work in an optimistic context, one where a kind of magic might be “activated in the viewer…. (within which) those transformations and awakenings of perception that art and its processes can prompt” (Charlotte Cotton). Ailbhe has spoken both nationally and internationally at conferences ranging from the Society for Photographic Education Conference ‘Family Values’ in Orlando Florida to ‘Fast Forward Women in Photography’ at the Tate Modern, London, where she was selected as one of 15 speakers from over 250 international submissions. The paper ‘States of Colour: Irish and Vietnamese Women after Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet’ extends the narrative of the work ‘Street Flower’, engaging with a museum collection, Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet, and Museum garden, at Musée Albert Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt, Paris.
Ailbhe has been a Lecturer in Photography at Ulster University’s Belfast School of Art since 2007 and Course Director of the MFA Photography Degree since 2013. A founding member of the BA(Hons) Photography & Video Degree (2007) and MFA Photography Degree (Campus 2010/ E-Learning 2015), she is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a member of the Ulster University Art & Design Research Institute (RIAD). She was appointed Fulbright Commission Ambassador to Ulster University in 2016, and acts as an advisor for both the Irish and British Fulbright Alumni Societies, IUSA Culture Panel and as a selection panel member for the Fulbright Commission Ireland’s Student/Scholar Award in the Arts.
Prior to her appointment at UU Ailbhe worked as a Curatorial Intern under Jennifer Blessing at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, on the exhibitions: Speaking with Hands: Photographs from The Buhl Collection, 2004 / Singular Forms (Sometimes Repeated): Art from 1951 to the Present, 2004 / Matthew Barney The Cremaster Cycle, 2003.
She has served as Editorial Assistant at Blind Spot Magazine, New York; Advanced Digital Imaging Artist with Lux Imaging, New York; Gallery Assistant + Print Manager (Voluntary), Here Is New York Exhibition, 116 Prince St, New York; Digital Output Centre Manager, School of Visual Arts, New York and Graduate Teaching Assistant, MFA Photography Dept, School of Visual Arts, New York, under the mentorship of Sarah Charlesworth, Anna Gaskell, Collier Schorr, Stephen Shore, Charles Traub and Randy West.
A BA(Hons) Communications Degree Graduate from Dublin City University (under the mentorship of Karl Grimes), Ailbhe also holds an MFA with Distinction from the School of Visual Arts New York, where she graduated as a Fulbright and Aaron Siskind Memorial Scholar. She is also the recipient of the SVA MFA Chairman's Award 2000-2003, Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary 2006, Arts Council Travel Award 2012, Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award 2014 and SPE International Conference Grant Award 2017 (with the research paper Street Flower; An Impossible View, ranking highest out of 247 proposals received by a 10-member peer review panel). Her work is held in the collections of the School of Visual Arts New York and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She has been generously supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.
EDUCATION:
2000 – 2003: School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, USA, MFA Photography and Related Media Department, MFA Photography and Related Media with Distinction.
1996 – 1999: Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, Department of Humanities, School of Communications, BA (Hons) Communication Studies.
SELECT AWARDS:
2017
SPE (Society for Photographic Education) International Conference Grant Award Recipient (Paper ranked highest out of 247 proposals received by 10-member peer review panel).
2014
Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency.
2012
Arts Council Of Ireland Visual Arts Travel Award.
2006:
Arts Council Of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary 2006.
2001-2003:
Graduate Assistantship; awarded by the School of Visual Arts, NY.
2000-2003:
Aaron Siskind Memorial Scholarship.
2000-2003:
School of Visual Arts Chairman's Award.
2000-2003:
Fulbright Award.
SELECT EXHIBITIONS:
2021:
UPCOMING FORMAT21.
2020/2021: Monday 24th August 2020 - Saturday 31st July 2021
-‘Not Alone’, Golden Thread Gallery, Touring Exhibition.
2019:
-'Arts Council Northern Ireland Collection’, Belfast Exposed, Belfast.
https://www.belfastexposed.org/exhibitions/arts-council-ni-collection/
Invited Artists: Paul Seawright / Donavan Wylie / Susan MacWilliam / Peter Richards / Ailbhe Greaney (A View (Here & There)) / Fergus Jordan / Laura McDowell / Joanna Karolini / Mairead McClean / Adrian O’Connell / Angela Halliday.
2019:
-'Arts Council Northern Ireland Collection’, The Burnavon, Co. Tyrone.
Showcasing the work of women artists from the Collection of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland.
2018/2019:
-'209 Women’, Portcullis House, Palace of Westminister, London & Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool. Curated by HIlary Wood, Tracy Marshall, Cheryl Newman, Lisa Tse.
Invited Artists Inc: Ailbhe Greaney / Hannah Starkey / Haley Morris-Cafiero / Wendy McMurdo/ Alison Jackson / Rut Blees Luxemburg/ Teresa Eng / Julia Fullerton-Batten / Amak Mahmoodian / Sian Bonnell/ Trish Morrissey / Michelle Sank / Dragana Jurisic / Lottie Davies/ Karen Knorr/ Natasha Caruana
2018
-'Beyond View’, Belfast Exposed, Belfast.
https://www.belfastexposed.org/exhibitions/beyond-view/
Invited/Selected Artists: Christopher Barr / David Copeland / Jean Curran / KayLynn Deveney / Robert Ellis / Errol Forbes / Paul Gaffney / Clare Gallagher / Richard Gilligan / Richard Gosnold / Ailbhe Greaney (Street Flower)/ / Frederic Huska & Michelle Moloney / Paddy Kelly / Jim Maginn / Yvette Monahan / Peter Neill / Martin Parr / Maria Przybylska / Lucy Rehill / Nael Quraishi / Johnny Savage / Paul Seawright / Lee Stitt / Tommy Weir / Donovan Wylie.
2016:
-'Photography Is Magic’, Aperture Foundation, New York. Curated by Charlotte Cotton.
https://aperture.org/exhibition/2016-aperture-summer-open-photography-magic/
Selected Artists (from over 700 submissions): Delaney Allen / Syl Arena / Lucy Wood Baird / Stella Baraklianou / Amelia Bauer / G. Roland Biermann / Thom Bridge / Radek Brousil / Drew Brown / Bubi Canal / Ellen Carey / Jesse Chehak / Joseph Desler Costa / Adam Ekberg / Annabel Elgar / Ailbhe Greaney (Street Flower)/ Valerie Green / Jill Greenberg / Aaron Hegert / Matthew Herrmann / Sheree Hovsepian / Noah Jackson / Jessica Labatte / Dionne Lee / Matthew Leifheit and Cynthia Talmadge/ Jo Longhurst / Jason Lukas / Chris Maggio / Irene Mamiye / William Miller / Chris Mottalini / Deepanjan Mukhopadhyay / Jennifer Niederhauser Schlup / Zachary Norman / Ryan Oskin / Megan Paetzhold / Meghann Riepenhoff / Anastasia Samoylova / Michael Schmid / Marco Scozzaro / Katie Shapiro / Tabitha Soren / Jessica Thalmann / Sonja Thomsen / Patricia Voulgaris / Marta Wlusek / Guanyu Xu / Hyounsang Yoo / Junsheng Zhou.
2015:
-‘Rewind’, Installation, Tate Liverpool, Look/15 /Liverpool International Photography Festival. Curated by Anna Fox.
https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/special-event/lightnight-2015-tate-liverpool
Invited Artists: Karen Knorr / Sarah Jones /Natasha Caruana /Melanie Friend /Rut Blees Luxemburg /Alijca Dobrucka /Joy Gregory / Sophy Rickett / Chinar Shah / Marilene Cardosa Ribeiro / Helen Sear / Bettina Von Zwehl / Clare Strand / Anna Fox / Neeta Madahar / Hannah Starkey / Susan Lipper / Effie Paleologou / Sarah Pickering / Vicki Churchill / Eileen Perrier / KayLynn Deveney/ Ailbhe Greaney (Street Flower) / Maria Kapajeva / Anne Hardy / Joanna Piotrowska / Emma Critchley / Tereza Zelenkova / Steffi Klenz / Giulia Marchi / Lottie Davies / Joy Gregory / Jill Quigley / Trish Morrissey / Helen Goodin / Shiho, Kito / Nandini Valli
2015:
-‘Street Flower’, Paris Photo CCI Weekend Focus On Photography, Espace Lhomond Paris. (Solo Exhibition).
https://www.centreculturelirlandais.com/en/agenda/week-end-consacre-a-la-photographie
2014:
-‘Wilde Art’, Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris. Curated by Christa-Maria Lerm Hayes.
https://www.centreculturelirlandais.com/en/agenda/wilde-art
Invited Artists: Neil Bartlett / Marc Camille Chaimowicz / Patrick Chambon / Ailbhe Greaney (The Light Beautiful’) / Maggi Hambling / Seamus Harahan / McDermott & McGough / Brian O’Doherty / Hugh O’Donnell / Yinka Shonibare /Mark Wallinger / Ines et Eyal Weizman
2012:
-‘Migration Memory, and Place’, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj, Denmark.
Selected Artist: Ailbhe Greaney (‘A View’), Installation. (Solo Exhibition).
-‘A View’, Installation, Lanyon Gallery, Queen’s University Belfast, with Reading/Performance by Ciaran Carson. (Solo Exhibition).
-‘A View’, Installation, Chelsea Bridge, Queenstown Road, London. (Solo Exhibition).
-'A View Is Where We Are Not’, PhotoIreland, ‘Migrations: Diaspora & Cultural Identity’, The Little Museum of Dublin, 15 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. (Solo Exhibition).
http://2012.photoireland.org/?portfolio=a-view-is-where-we-are-not
2008:
-‘Different Dimension/Different Dimension 2’, The 2nd Novosibirsk International Festival of Contemporary Photography, Novosibirsk State Art Museum, Novosibirsk, Siberia& Metenkov Photographic Museum, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
Invited Artists Inc: Ailbhe Greaney (Here & There).
-‘Art Media and Contested Space’, Public Art and Billboard Project, Belfast City, Northern Ireland. Curated by Declan McGonagle.
Invited Artists Inc: Ailbhe Greaney (Here & There), Paul Seawright, Peter Kennard + Kat Phillips, Anthony Haughey, Alfredo Jaar.
-‘Here & There /Neither Here Nor There’, Open/Invited Eva 2008, ‘too early for vacation’, Limerick City Art Gallery, Limerick. Curated by Hou Hanru. (Solo Exhibition).
http://gallery.limerick.ie/LCGAExhibitions/LCGAExhibitionsArchive/2008Exhibitions/eva2008.html
SELECT CONFERENCE CONTRIBUTIONS:
2019:
Street Flower: An Impossible View.
Key Note Speaker: APHE Conference, Arts University Bournemouth.
2017:
Street Flower: An Impossible View.
John Berger Now, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury, UK.
2017:
Street Flower: An Impossible View.
Family Values, SPE (Society for Photographic Education) Conference, Florida, USA.
(Street Flower, An Impossible View” emerged from a 10-member peer review panel among the highest ranked from 247 proposals received, and was awarded a 2017 SPE International Conference Grant).
https://www.spenational.org/award-history
https://www.spenational.org/conferences/2017-spe-national-conference/speakers?page=2
2015:
States of Colour: Irish and Vietnamese Women after Albert Kahn’s Archives of the Planet.
Fast Forward: Women In Photography; Tate Modern London.
https://fastforward.photography/our-projects/conference-at-tate-modern/
2014:
The Light Beautiful.
The Wilde Days in Paris with Société Oscar Wilde and THE OSCHOLARS.
2013:
The Concept of ‘Home’; conceptual reproduction, repetition and doubling within photographic practice.
Migration: Global Development, New Frontiers with University College London, co-funded by the European Union and the NORFACE Migration Programmme.
2012:
The Concept of ‘Home’; conceptual reproduction, repetition and doubling within photographic practice.
Migration Memory, and Place with The University of Copenhagen, Arken Museum of Modern Art, Ishoj.
2012:
‘A View’, Representing The British and Irish Fulbright Association.
The 35th Annual International Fulbright Association Conference London; Fulbrighters, Minding the gaps (and Bridging Them)!
2009:
Invited Speaker, US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Knowledge Inter-change Conference.