Working primarily with sculpture, and occasionally with painting and film, Aleana Egan engenders psychological states and memories through enigmatic arrangements of objects and forms. Her sculptural works appear restrained, but are laden with subtle references to the built environment. An airy, slender metal structure might echo an architectural form plucked out of the landscape, while her use of simple household materials – plaster, cardboard, matte paint and various fabrics – speak to the domestic. Egan’s practice is shaped by her deep engagement with works of literature and cinema: never opting for direct representation, she uses this source material as an entryway, absorbing the moods and tones it evokes. Her forms and shapes act as traces or shifting responses, tentative articulations of remembered places or everyday moments. A meandering, sensuous line and sense of fluidity is carried from her sculptures into her film and painting, giving form to a sense of flux, openness and mutability.
Aleana Egan lives and works in Dublin.
Aleana Egan
little shell, small gift, 2024
mixed media on canvas
73 x 108 cm / 28.7 x 42.5 in
Aleana Egan
sound clips
2023
Chair, clothes, fabric diptych, fabric samples, steel mesh
199 x 114 x 67 cm total / 78.3 x 44.9 x 26.4 in total
Aleana Egan
Sky Song, 2023
card, tape, noil, cotton, papier mâché, twine, split pins, 4 elements
155 x 130 cm / 61 x 51.2 in total
Aleana Egan
be forgiving! change roles, 2007
oil paint on metal
42 x 43 x 3 cm / 16.5 x 16.9 x 1.2 in
Aleana Egan
a fragment, an apartment / May Levitt with her daughter Helen / silent tree, 2018
untreated bronze, unique
various sizes
Aleana Egan
a social edge, 2015
lacquered steel and copper, powder-coated steel pipes, card, tape, filler, paint, varnish
140 x 220 x 86 cm / 55.1 x 86.6 x 33.9
Aleana Egan
little surface pictures, 2014/2018
Powder-coated steel, steel, lacquer, cotton & linen garments, resin, anti-fatigue matting
251 x 286 x 366 cm / 98.8 x 112.6 x 144.1 in
Aleana Egan
Understudy, 2014
galvanised and powder-coated steel
910 x 330 x 65 cm / 358.3 x 129.9 x 25.6 in
Installation at Merrion Square, Dublin
Aleana Egan
Shapes from life
installation at Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Gallery 2 July 31 - September 30, 2015
Aleana Egan
daily air, 2013
stainless steel, plaster of Paris, wire, two elements
element one 0.2 x 95 x 135 cm / .1 x 37.4 x 53.1 in
element two 36 x 66 x 80 cm / 14.2 x 26 x 31.5 in
Aleana Egan
At intervals, while turning
installation at Drawing Room, London
3 February – 13 March 2011
Aleana Egan
When things cast no shadow
installation at 5th Berlin Biennial
5th April–15th June 2008
Copyright Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Uwe Walter, 2008
Aleana Egan
Leopards in the Temple
installation at Sculpture Center, New York
January 10 - March 30, 2010
Aleana Egan
We sat down where we had sat before
installation at Kunsthalle Basel
20 April – 08 June 2008
Aleana Egan
When things cast no shadow
installation at 5th Berlin Biennial
5th April–15th June 2008
Copyright Berlin Biennial for Contemporary Art, Uwe Walter, 2008
Vestibule, Merrion Square, Dublin, 2014
Aleana Egan has exhibited at Sculpture Center, New York; Kunsthalle Basel; Kunsthalle zu Kiel; Landesmuseum Münster; The Drawing Room and Jerwood Space, London; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh; Leeds Art Gallery; the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Temple Bar Gallery and IMMA, Dublin, and the Berlin Biennale. Forthcoming exhibitions include St Carthage Hall, Lismore Castle Arts (2024). Recent solo exhibitions include Kerlin Gallery (2023); Void, Derry (2022); Künstlerhaus Bremen (2021); NICC Vitrine Brussels (2020) and Farbvision, Berlin (2019). Recent group exhibitions include Stations, Berlin (2023); CCA Andratx, Mallorca (2022); The Complex, Dublin and The Classical Museum, University College Dublin (both 2021).
We sat down where we had sat before, Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland, 2008
Aleana Egan
Material Flux, two-person exhibition with Isabel Nolan, 2024
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland
Aleana Egan
small field, 2021
Künstlerhaus Bremen, Germany
Aleana Egan
Spitze, 2019
Farbvision, Berlin, Germany
Aleana Egan
day wears, 2012
Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Aleana Egan
At intervals, while turning, 2011
The Drawing Room, London
Aleana Egan
When things cast no shadow, 2008
5th Berlin Biennial, Germany
Photo: berlin biennial for contemporary art, Uwe Walter
Aleana Egan
We sat down where we had sat before, 2008
Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland
Alena Egan & Isabel Nolan
Material Flux
Highlanes Gallery
29 June – 10 August
Video: Ros Kavanagh
Aleana Egan in conversation with Dr. Sarah Lowndes
This In Converation coincided with the exhibition Aleana Egan - 'At intervals, while turning'
Drawing Room
3 February 2011 – 13 March 2011
Aleana Egan and Isabel Nolan present a two-person exhibition that leans into the special character of Highlanes Gallery.
Aleana Egan's solo exhibition Second-hand opens at St Carthage Hall, Lismore Castle Arts on 23 March 2024.
Artists: Dorje de Burgh, Samuel Laurence Cunnane, Aleana Egan, Louise Hopkins, Seda Mimaroğlu, Cecilia Szalkowicz
Aleana Egan presents a solo exhibition of new sculpture and painting at VOID, Derry.
Aleana Egan presents new site-specific work for group exhibition 'Feeling of Knowing' at The Complex, Dublin.
Dorothy Cross and Aleana Egan feature work in 'The Museum of Ancient History', a site-responsive exhibition that places artworks by six contemporary artists in dialogue with a collection of ancient artefacts from the Classical world.
Aleana Egan presents 'small field', a solo exhibition at Künstlerhaus, Bremen.
