{{short description|Irish artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox artist | birth_date = 1956 | education = Crawford Municipal College of Art, Cork | alma_mater = University of Ulster | known_for = Sculpture, photography, installations | spouse = Dermot Seymour | birth_place = Kilmoyler, County Tipperary | elected = Aosdána | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|RHA|}} }} '''Alice Maher''' {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|RHA}} (born 1956) is a contemporary Irish artist working in a variety of media, including sculpture, photography and installation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://imma.ie/artists/alice-maher/|title=Alice Maher|website=IMMA|language=en-IE|access-date=2019-04-16}}</ref>
==Education== Maher was born in Kilmoyler, near Bansha, County Tipperary and received her early education at Ballydrehid National School and at Coláiste Chríost Rí, Cahir. She later graduated from the University of Limerick and the Crawford College of Art in Cork. Then she undertook an MA at the University of Ulster, Belfast in 1985 and 1986.<ref>{{cite book|last=Deepwell|first=Katy|title=Dialogues : women artists from Ireland|date=2005|publisher=I.B. Tauris|location=London|isbn=9781850436218|page=136|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xk5C8EYuU1wC&dq=alice%20maher&pg=PA136}}</ref> Maher spent time in San Francisco Art Institute in 1986 as a Fulbright Scholar.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Alice Maher - Current Member {{!}} Aosdana|url = http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/Maher.aspx|website = aosdana.artscouncil.ie|accessdate = 2015-10-13|archive-date = 23 September 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923022140/http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/Maher.aspx|url-status = dead}}</ref>
==Career== thumb|right|''The Axe (and the Waving Girl)'' by Alice Maher, 2003 Maher works in a range of media, often from outside the tradition of fine art and more from the natural and domestic world, such as hair, nettles, bees and thorns.<ref>[http://journals.gold.ac.uk/make.html ''Women Artists Slide Library Journal'' '''22''' (April–May 1988). Retrieved 5 November 2014] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141105183554/http://journals.gold.ac.uk/make.html |date=5 November 2014 }}</ref> She has explored the themes of childhood and death, such as ''Mnemosyne'', 2003, wherein she creates a bedlike structure constructed from refrigerator coils; when the coils become frosty they gleam a luminous white sheen.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Circa: c104: Summer 2003 – Alice Maher, Mnemosyne|url = http://circaartmagazine.website/summer-2003-alice-maher-mnemosyne/|website = circaartmagazine.website|accessdate = 2015-10-13|url-status = dead|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122023/http://circaartmagazine.website/summer-2003-alice-maher-mnemosyne/|archivedate = 2016-03-04}}</ref> She is interested in how identities, particularly gendered identities, are constructed by history and culture.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}
=== Exhibitions === Maher's work was the subject of a survey show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, IMMA, in 2012 titled ''Becoming''. The exhibition took place in the IMMA's temporary location at Earlsfort Terrace as the museum was undergoing renovations at the time.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Through the looking-glass with Alice|url = http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/art-and-design/through-the-looking-glass-with-alice-1.550683|newspaper = The Irish Times|accessdate = 2015-10-13}}</ref> Maher represented Ireland at the São Paulo Art Biennial in 1994.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Anglo Celt - EVERYWOMAN - Innovative IMMA exhibition in Cavan|url = http://www.anglocelt.ie/news/roundup/articles/2007/12/12/25094-everywoman--innovative-imma-exhibition-in-cavan|website = Anglo Celt|accessdate = 2015-10-13}}{{Dead link|date=April 2021 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
=== Collaborations === Maher has collaborated with artists from a range of disciplines. She collaborated with the composer Trevor Knight since 1999. Knight has produced soundtracks for her animated videos. ''Visitant,'' a live show combining dance, music and visual art, was a collaboration between Maher, Knight, the Butoh dancer Gyohei Zaitsu and musician Áine O'Dwyer. ''Visitant'' was performed at the Project Arts Centre in 2014.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Dark collaboration: four artists, four disciplines, one show|url = http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/dark-collaboration-four-artists-four-disciplines-one-show-1.1697607|newspaper = The Irish Times|accessdate = 2015-10-13}}</ref>
Maher's film ''Cassandra's Necklace'', produced for her retrospective exhibition at IMMA in 2015, was based on an unpublished script by Irish writer Anne Enright and features the actress Charlie Murphy.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Alice Maher, and getting better at what you do {{!}} Pop Life|url = http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/poplife/2012/10/16/alice-maher-and-getting-better-at-what-you-do/|website = www.irishtimes.com|accessdate = 2015-10-13}}</ref>
In 2018, Maher collaborated with the poet Doireann Ní Ghríofa on the book ''Nine Silences'' published by Salvage Press.<ref>{{Cite web|title = 100 Archive |url = http://www.100archive.com/project/nine-silences}}</ref>
===Collections=== * ''Berry Dress'', 1994, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin * The Arts Council of Ireland including * ''Nettle Coat'' (1996) * The Crawford Gallery, Cork, including * [https://web.archive.org/web/20050211185015/http://crawfordartgallery.com/Paintings/AlMaher.html ''Irish Dancers'' (1992)] * [http://www.artscouncil-ni.org/publicart/tour/tour6.htm ''Fairytale Wall'' (2002)], Special Investigation Unit, Level 2, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast
== Bibliography == * Maher, Alices, ''Reservoir'' (Dublin: Roads Publishing, 2014) was a collection of the artist's sketchbooks<ref>{{Cite web|title = RESERVOIR BY ALICE MAHER: SKETCHBOOKS & SELECTED WORKS|url = http://www.irishartsreview.com/reservoir-by-alice-maher-sketchbooks-selected-works/|website = www.irishartsreview.com|accessdate = 2015-10-13}}</ref> * Allen Randolph, Jody. "Alice Maher, August 2009." ''Close to the Next Moment: Interviews from a Changing Ireland.'' Manchester: Carcanet, 2010. * Barber, Fiona. ''Familiar'' [essay]. Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery; Derry: Orchard Gallery, 1995. * Bourne, Cecile. ''Familiar'' [interview]. Dublin: Douglas Hyde Gallery; Derry: Orchard Gallery, 1995. * Deepwell, Katy. "Alice Maher." ''Dialogues: Women Artists from Ireland.'' London: IB Tauris, 2005. * Dickinson, Sheila. ‘Alice Maher, Rood’, ''Circa'' Magazine (Winter 2005), No. 114, pp. 86 – 87. * Ruane, Mebd. 'A Sting in the Tail.' ''Profile: Alice Maher''. Cork: Gandon Editions, 1998. 5-10.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commons category|Alice Maher}} *[http://www.alicemaher.com/ Official website] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20140310005353/http://www.greenonredgallery.com/artist.php?intArtistID=14 Alice Maher at Green on Red Gallery, Dublin] *[http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/Maher.aspx Aosdána short biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923022140/http://aosdana.artscouncil.ie/Members/Visual-Arts/Maher.aspx |date=23 September 2015 }} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304122023/http://circaartmagazine.website/summer-2003-alice-maher-mnemosyne/ Isabel Nolan (2003) review of ''Mnemosyne'' in Circa 104.] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304131244/http://circaartmagazine.website/winter-2003-portadown-alice-maher-at-millenium-court-arts-centre/ Chérie Driver (2003) review of ''Portraits'' in Circa 106.] *Dorothy Walker (2002) ''Maher, Alice'' in Brian Lalor (Ed.), ''The Encyclopedia of Ireland''. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. {{ISBN|0-7171-3000-2}}
{{Authority control (arts)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maher, Alice}} Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century Irish painters Category:21st-century Irish painters Category:20th-century Irish sculptors Category:Irish contemporary artists Category:Alumni of Cork Institute of Technology Category:Aosdána members Category:Artists from County Tipperary Category:20th-century Irish women painters Category:21st-century Irish women painters