MTU Arts Office presents a selection of graduates from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design final year 2022, including Contemporary Applied Art, Visual Communications, and Fine Art.

These artists and designers have developed individual visual and technical languages, and produced challenging, provocative works. There is a strong appreciation of visual culture and the crafts and traditions of their disciplines, while each artist also finds new approaches. Old stories are re-imagined, new stories created, roles and relationships are questioned. Above all, each is trying to find ways of using their practice to communicate and to help others to communicate – in an era dominated by constant distraction and diversion.

VIEW ONLINE EXHIBITION guide HERE - SEE 2022

About exhibiting Artists & Designers:

Camila Winqvist – Fine Art / Textiles Costume/ Set

I use paintings, sewing and costume making, as well as video to parody the online culture known as “cottagecore”. “Cottagecore” is a social media aesthetic that focuses on the rural aspects of everyday life but presented through a glorified and heavily edited point of view. Even though I aim to criticize the irony that comes from frequently posting staged and edited photographs online as a way of distancing oneself from modern life and technology, I also want to appreciate the aesthetic and the online community that’s associated with “cottagecore”. I use heavily saturated colours and fictional landscapes to create a dreamlike, made-up world in which I critique the overly staged and produced side of online aesthetics. I’m inspired by storybooks, commercial magazines, and kitsch, and my goal is to show an overly exaggerated world that raises questions about our views of the perfect world, social media, and online culture.

Daniela Balaur – Visual Communications – Drawing/Book Illustration

I am Daniela Balaur and I am studying Visual Communications. For my Final Project I am illustrating a book about a garden and finding stillness, peace and magic in nature. The book is one of the outcomes of the project, along with a short film and a poster. The book illustrates a story of a celestial being (a human) that is born out of the stars and unknown. In order to understand itself it gets curious, and this curiosity leads to its fall. While falling it passes through other beings that plant seeds in its skin. Some are painful, but in order to see how they will grow, the being must find peace. It finally arrives in the garden, which feels like home, and lets the seeds grow. It becomes the garden.

Ellie Wall – Fine Art / Sculpture - plaster

My work explores the concept of the abyss in relation to the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is often a place of chaos and awareness, a constant stream of turbulent thinking. While the unconscious mind is like an unknowing reservoir of feelings and thoughts that, similar to the abyss, absorbs matter. The abyss and the unconscious mind both convey the overwhelming fear of the unknown in my practice. Resin is a key material in my work as it allows me to recreate the thick dark qualities of the abyss while also holding a reflective feature allowing the viewer to be implemented in the work. My sculptures and paintings aim to simulate staring into the abyss and the abyss in return staring back, possibly having consequences on the viewers’ concept of self.

Helen Cantwell – Fine Art/ Print - projection

My work aims to explore ideas of advertising culture and crowd manipulation through social media streams, particularly why we as consumers feel the need to constantly change our lifestyles to fit an online image. Expanding on this, I look at the effect of social media saturation on the identities and psyches of a generation raised online. Working in expanded image making, my practice layers methods of digital collage, print media, appropriation techniques and installation, drawing on the visuals of social media and inserting autobiographical imagery. Using marketing materials such as acrylic and steel I aim to emulate advertisement aesthetics, while transparency and colour saturation reflect internet and screen media aesthetics.

Katie Waters – Fine Art / Print - bookmaking

Traditional symbolism and customs in Ireland such as Folklore have started to phase out as a modern culture of online living and fast fashion continues to grow in popularity and entwine its way into our current culture. In this body of work, vibrant prints and tacky kitsch aim to display a modernised version of an eccentric Celtic woman living in the current age of millennial Irish culture. Laser cut fluorescent motifs surround the prints, resembling an exaggerated accumulation of eclectic symbols relating to the Celtic female agenda. The objects form a mixture of traditional Celtic symbols, such as the Claddagh and Celtic knotwork, with highly manufactured designer brand symbolism. This work encapsulates an overall view of the female aesthetics of Modern Éire.

Martyna Krawczyk – Visual Communications – Book/ photography family memories

Hello, my name is Martyna Krawczyk! I am a graphic designer with a focus on Branding, Packaging Design and Illustration.  I am passionate about everything I do and I try to push myself to improve as much as I can. I love making new connections and learning from others (you learn something new every day right?)
For my final year project I have decided to create a book about myself and my family coming over to Ireland. At the age of six, my parents and I moved to Ireland. Moving away from an established network of friends and family as well as your routines and surroundings can be traumatic for a child at any age, especially when a different language is involved. The book talks about my life once we moved over, the good choices we made as well as some questions answered.

Monika Kosmowsha – Fine Art / Painting

My work is about drifting from place to place without knowing where you’re going or where you came from. It depicts a Polish landscape and bus stops that appear to be out of use. The paintings are meant to evoke feelings of discomfort and nostalgia; feelings you might have towards a place you wouldn’t call home, as they represent the lack of it, but a place you are still strangely familiar with. The work is postcard sized and painted with acrylic on watercolour paper, further emphasizing the idea the passage through time and space.

Rebecca Abjeigbe – Fine Art Painting

My work deals with notions of identity, gender, race, beauty and how my own identity is an amalgamation of my past and the people around me. With the use of bright saturated colours, mark making, paint and charcoal I aim to create a female figure which is influenced by the bodies of actual people such as myself and family members. My paintings are my attempt to answer questions of my own views of my body and how race influences my perception of beauty.

Rosaleen O’Rourke – Contemporary Applied Art / Ceramics

I am inspired by snapshots of human beings and their multifaceted activities, especially in the now post-Covid context. This work deals with the narrative of life in CCAD, with these series of portraits of fellow students.
I took photographs of them outside, capturing ordinary, everyday moments, and these formed my reference material, developed through drawing.
The personal portraits were created in earthenware clay. Sgraffito was used to create the outlines, detail and pattern. A range of underglaze colours was applied to make the portraits 'pop'.
I aimed for simplicity in these intimate works, depicting a record of our creative community.

Zoe Collins – White Noise Podcast

As a designer I like to spread awareness through my designs. For my project I created a podcast called “White Noise” which discusses topical social issues and releases a monthly zine on each topic. The hope of the zine is to act as a conversation starter. The purpose is to shed light on the conversations around the topic of violence against women, and to gain insight into different people’s perspectives around this issue.

Designs by Alex Robey - Visual Communication

About her degree show project:

My name is Alex. As a designer I am deeply influenced by the world around me. My main passion is Illustrative branding. I use mixed media in order to combine juxtaposing forces, such as organic and synthetic elements. Using nature as a resource allows me to achieve range and expression in my work as well as to communicate my core value of sustainability.

Anu is a Music and Arts Festival that celebrates all life forms. Reflecting on the Celtic values of Animism, the Anu branding brings life to all aspects of nature. This is achieved by using illustration to create a unique and vibrant visual language that teleports you to A-NU world.  Bringing a fun new light to sustainability, the festival invites you to listen to the sound of the ground as well as the music.