This new body of work by Lauren Conway arises from the artists’ research while on residence at Studio Voltaire, London, working with the meticulously curated, hyper-colour-coordinated filing system developed by her sister.

Draw a card is part of the final iteration of an ongoing project which centres around three of the artist’s family members’ engagement with state-run educational spaces.

This third iteration investigates the conflict between Conway’s twin sister’s studies in astrology, tarot and crystal healing and her demanding, logic-driven studies in bio-pharmaceutical chemistry while at university. The title Draw a card refers to both sisters’ chance encounters with expansive and innumerable source materials within early adulthood, and how baring witness to information intrinsically alters the self in unquantifiable ways.

This selection of paintings arises from Conway’s research while on residence at Studio Voltaire, London, working with the meticulously curated, hyper-colour-coordinated filing system that her sister has developed to study both fields. The expanded colour palette in the artist’s recent practice refers implicitly to the source materials and stationary used in her sister’s studies, to the standardised pastel palettes of post its, labels and ring binders. The subdued colours utilised in these prosaic materials are heightened, pushed to the limits of their saturation possibilities, simulating the arresting aesthetic of astrology ephemera, collectable crystals and Tarot cards. These visual effects aim to draw the viewer into an exploration of the painting’s own materiality and its relation to these contemporary (popular) spiritual objects, containing its subject matter through geometric organisation while elevating it to the point of spectacle through its iridescent and layered colouring.

Draw a Card reflects on Conway’s sister’s disparate filing systems and research materials, in recognition of the craft and organisation involved which seems to blur the line between meditation, utility and artistic exploration. The works might challenge the viewer to consider their own impulses and how they operate within a host of logic systems in order to navigate studies, vocations and the world at large.

Lauren Conway is a Dublin based visual artist who uses archival materials, documentation from site visits, and found images in her drawing and painting processes in order to explore experiences of education in Ireland.

Conway graduated from the Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dún Laoghaire and has also studied at the University of the Arts Helsinki and the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts School. In 2021 she was the recipient of the RHA Graduate Studio Award, The DLR/IADT Emerging Artist Bursary, and The Dock/IADT Graduate Award for her graduate exhibition A Great Public Meeting. In 2024 Conway was in residence at Studio Voltaire, London, developing a new body of work The Healing System which is the subject of this presentation at the RHA, Dublin. Recent exhibitions include Things Changed, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, (2024), Lockjaw, Ranelagh Arts, (2023), Remembering the Future, VISUAL Carlow (2023), A Great Public Meeting, The Dock (2022), Rendering New Realities, Access and Alterity, The Douglas Hyde (2021), and Karen, Ormond Art Studios (2021).

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