Aileen Mcewen

Aileen McEwen (b.Belfast 1989) is an artist based in Northern Ireland. Her works take the form of large scale figurative oil paintings.

Her work is an exploration of illusion, desire and memory. She layers together in equal measure imagery taken from art history, myth, and contemporary culture such as interior design, food and consumerism. McEwen constructs narratives that confront the anxiety surrounding the value of painting when reproduction is easy and the internet oversaturates us with imagery.

Colour and light, and brushstrokes, inform the psychological space of the painting. Recent works have begun to engage with the tension between figuration and abstraction. Her palette and composition is influenced, in particular, by Rococo art and Impressionism.

Aileen McEwen graduated from Glasgow School of Art in 2012 with a B. A. (Hons) in Painting and Printmaking and was shortlisted for the Saatchi New Sensations Prize. She works in cultural heritage, and her paintings are full of the historic spaces and objects in which and with which she works.

2008-2012 BA (HONS) Fine Art: Painting/Printmaking, Glasgow School of Art

Clutch, Haptik Art Space, Northern Ireland, August 2017

A Breath From The Drawing Room, solo show, Battletown Gallery, Northern Ireland, 22 October – 22 November 2013

Young Masters Tour, The Cynthia Corbett Gallery, Travelling Show UK, June – July 2013

New Faces, Leith Gallery, Edinburgh, February – March 2013

Saatchi New Sensations, Victoria House, London, October 2012

New Generation, Compass Gallery, Glasgow July 2012

New Firm, Candid Arts Trust London, July 2012

Degree Show Glasgow School of Art, June 2012

A Room of Ones Own, Glasgow School of Art, Group Exhibition, Glasgow, May 2011

24 Dunearn Street, Group Exhibition, Glasgow, Nov 2010