Shane Finan
Shane Finan is a visual artist and project manager working with interactive digital media and community-based projects.
Trained in fine art (IT Sligo, 2008) with a focus on painting, he completed an MSc in interactive digital media (Trinity College Dublin, 2013). His media include computer programs, installation, painting, events, dialogues, text and community projects. His work is about place, environment and technology, influenced by contemporary research from science, art, philosophy and sociology. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Ireland, Iceland, Poland, the USA, China, the UK and online.
As part of his practice, Shane leads projects. He was project manager at European Union and Irish funded projects at Trinity College Dublin (2014-20), and has established and run artist-led projects, both short and long term, in Ireland, Iceland and the USA. In 2007, he set up the local art group for artists working in rural areas in Ireland, Push Remote, which had a studio/gallery in Sligo from 2009-11. He was one of the four artists that put together the ArtCrawl exhibition (2009) and subsequently helped in setting up ArtMart studio and gallery (Sligo, 2009-11), with Sofia Murray, Siabhra O'Brien and Lisa Cannon. He co-founded the design and new media conference Rough Draft (Sligo 2013 & 2014) with designer Paul McNama.
He has been received awards and funding from the Arts Council of Ireland (2020, 2012), Visual Arts in Rural Communities (UK, 2020), Creative Ireland, Sligo (2020), Trinity College Dublin (2019), Culture Ireland (2018) Enterprise Ireland (2017, 2019), Visual Artists Ireland (2016) and Sligo Arts Office (2011).
'In Shane Finan's oevre the dialogue between art and nature, and what is means in a social context can be seen. His art encourages conversation, interaction or engagement to go over the physical or invisible border: both the borders of a country and its population, and the perceived "do not touch" borders of artworks.' - curator Valeria Ceregini, on Shane Finan, Over Nature Catalogue 2019
Website: https://shanefinan.org
The interactive touchscreen, projection and painting installation 'faigh ar ais as an fharraige' was built for Rye Creative Centre, Rye, England in 2018, responding to climate, landscape and technology
The interactive video and sensor-based installation 'The Repeated Refrains of Nature' (2019) pictured here on exhibition at the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny. This artwork was made in collaboration with the Trinity College Dublin Zoological Museum, funded by the university's Visual and Performing Arts Fund
