Opening reception and artist’s and curator’s talks Friday 10 April at 6pm

Roscommon Visual Artists Forum supported by Roscommon Arts Office and Roscommon Arts Centre are pleased to announce that Siobhan McGibbon is the first recipient of the RVAF Award.

The Roscommon Visual Artists Forum was established to provide visual artists based in or from the county with a platform to develop their practice through professional training, events, talks and exhibitions while also providing access to information and opportunities from beyond the region.

In response to the needs and requirements of the artists in the county, visual arts Curator in Residence Linda Shevlin, established this Roscommon Visual Artists Forum Award where applications were invited from artists to realize a project/exhibition in the Roscommon Arts Centre gallery in Spring 2015.

Siobhan McGibbon will be supported with a production budget plus the organisational and curatorial support of the Roscommon Arts Centre.

Siobhan, who is based in Roscommon, graduated from sculpture in GMIT in Galway in 2009 and was awarded sculpture student of the year. In 2014 she was awarded a scholarship from the Limerick City of Culture to undertake a research led practice based masters in LCAD, Limerick. Her practice is predominantly sculpture based with a distinct medical slant. Most recently McGibbon has exhibited in the 2014 RHA annual and solely in “The cultivation of a fallacy” the Linenhall art centre, “Existing on the edge of anatomy” in the Talbot Galley, Dublin and “The Artfarm residency” exhibition in 126, artist led space, Galway. Other significant exhibitions include the RHA annual 2013, for which she received the RHA Connor Falon Sculpture award, “Future Perfect”, Rubicon Brussels project, Tulca festival of visual arts, Galway, 2012 and Dublin contemporary 2011.

Siobhan plans to create a body of work conceived from investigations undertaken during her on-going residency in Galway University Hospital. With a specific focus on anatomy, the medicalization of the body, how “normal” is analysed within the medical field and the human experience within a medical environment.