Dominique Crowley – Winner of the 2020 RHA Graduate Studio Award

The RHA Graduate Studio Award is awarded as part of the RDS Visual Art Awards and gives the winner access to a full-time studio space in the RHA for a period of one year with access to all classes and masterclasses in the RHA School. Valued at €5,000, this prize comes with a stipend of €2,500 which is supported by Whyte’s. Former medic, Dominique Crowley, is the 2020 winner. Dominique graduated from NCAD this year with an MFA in Art in the Contemporary World. Dominique is a painter working in a style that she refers to as disrupted realism. Her paintings are figurative, tending in parts towards photo-realism. This is augmented by the application of a resin treatment to the surface which obliterates the brushstrokes creating a smoothness and heightened saturation creating a sort of ‘screen vision’ which transforms the works into digitized objects. She incorporates symbols of digital technology in her work, critiquing the pervasive presence of the screen in our everyday lives.