Most emerging artists might be happy if a customer wants their artwork to hang in the downstairs loo, but hoping for wall space in the Louvre would be beyond their wildest imaginings. However, this dream has come true for a young artist from south Armagh in Northern Ireland.
The Paris Art Shopping Fair
BBC News reports that Clíodhna Doherty, 29, was invited to display her work in the world-famous Parisian gallery as part of the The Art Shopping fair, which took place from 18-20 October this year. The contemporary art fair is attended by art collectors and anyone interested in acquiring art work.
The annual event held at the Louvre attracts about 10,000 visitors from all over the world, and it showcases work from over 100 international artists and galleries. It’s a popular way to discover new and emerging artists, and it includes artworks in a variety of media, from traditional paintings to sculpture, printmaking, digital art, street art, and photography.
Living the dream
Clíodhna is an abstract figurative artist who has only been working as a full time artist since 2020. She studied for a degree in animation and design, and worked as a graphic designer until she was motivated to quit her job and pursue her dream following the death of her granddad during the Covid 19 pandemic.
She said: “My grandad died during Covid-19 and he had been really pushing me to pursue fine art. I realised life is way too short, and I just said ‘sod it’ and quit my job and never looked back.”
A question of female identity
Clíodhna’s work focuses on female identity. Her painting ‘Laura’ (2022), which was displayed in the Louvre, features a stylised portrait of a young woman reading in bed, and was created as part of her Intimacy collection. For inspiration, she invited women to send her nude photos, and received 136 responses from women across Ireland.
From a shortlist of these images, Clíodhna created 30 paintings of nude women in non-sexualised situations, when they are relaxed and feeling comfortable in their own skin. She paid close attention to the story behind each photo, and the women’s reasons for sending it to her for consideration as a painting.
The artist explained: “It’s really heart-warming for me that women across Ireland have trusted me with those images and that I’m able to make them look and feel beautiful. It’s a really nice feeling to say: ‘I painted you, now it’s in the Louvre.'”
The home of the Mona Lisa
The invitation to exhibit her work at the Louvre was very special for Clíodhna, as it is the home of the world’s most famous painting, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
She told the BBC: “[Leonardo] Da Vinci is a huge inspiration for me. The Mona Lisa captures a woman both how she wanted to be perceived and how he perceived her and that’s kind of a thing I try to do in my own work as well but more abstract.”
She added: “It’s a bit bonkers, but when PAX Gallery in Austria reached out it was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down. I thought it was a scam at first. I thought it was a wee bit too good to be true, but it turned out to be legit and here we are.”
Challenging negative perceptions of fine art careers for young people
The young artist explained to the BBC that the intense focus on science and maths subjects has reinforced prejudices that art is not a ‘proper’ career, saying that there is a “stigma that artists don’t make money… there is that mental block”.
Clíodhna has found social media to be very beneficial in aiding her success as an artist, and it has led to opportunities to exhibit her work in Venice and Cannes as well as Paris.
She said: “It’s definitely changed for the better, especially for emerging women artists who only represent 2% within the art world. There is more exposure for women because of social media.”
If you have made the trip to Paris for the Art Shopping Fair and returned with some amazing new artwork, drop into our framing shop in north London and we will help you to showcase it to best effect.