Aosdána has elected five new members, the artists' association has announced. They are the author Anne Enright, the visual artists Amanda Coogan, Rachel Joynt and Diana Copperwhite, and the composer Linda Buckley.
Membership of Aosdána, which honours artists who have made outstanding contributions to the creative arts in Ireland, is by peer nomination and election.
Anne Enright
Anne Enright is the author of seven novels, including The Gathering, which won the Booker Prize in 2007. She was the inaugural laureate for Irish fiction (2015-18) and is a professor of creative writing at University College Dublin. Enright's work has been translated into almost 40 languages.
Amanda Coogan
Amanda Coogan is a critically acclaimed artist working across live art, performance, sculpture and installation. Her work is challenging, provocative and visually stimulating. As well as being playful and challenging, her performances address struggle and psychological resilience.
Shadow Voices. 300 Years of Irish Genre Fiction: A History in Stories: stellar work
Other Voices: Hozier, Sigrid and Fontaines DC on two decades of the Dingle music festival
The Wheel of Time: The fantasy epic hits Amazon Prime tomorrow. What’s it all about?
Britney Spears on life free of her conservatorship: ‘It’s the little things’
Rachel Joynt
Rachel Joynt, who lives and works in the Blackstairs Mountains, in Co Carlow, exhibits regularly at the Solomon Gallery in Dublin and at the RHA Annual. Many of her large sculptures are on public display, including Mothership, in Dún Laoghaire, and Noah's Egg, at University College Dublin. She is working on a large sculpture, Síol/Seed, for Glencar House, in Ballsbridge in Dublin.
Diana Copperwhite
Diana Copperwhite, who is based in Dublin, creates large wall installations and works with large canvases; she has an ongoing interest in the human portrait. Copperwhite’s recent publication Fake New World was published to coincide with a wall drawing and exhibition at the RHA Gallery in Dublin. She has lectured at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Western Sydney University and the University of Massachusetts, among others.
Linda Buckley
Linda Buckley, who is based in Glasgow, has written extensively for orchestra; she has a particular interest in merging her classical training with the worlds of postpunk, folk and ambient electronica. She lectures in composition at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
In the past year five members of Aosdána have died: Felim Egan (visual art), Julia O'Faolain (literature), David Shaw-Smith (visual art), Seamus Deane (literature) and John Kinsella (music). The five new members bring the organisation, which was founded in 1981, back to its maximum size of 250 people.
