Temple Bar Gallery + Studios announces the Recent Graduate Residency Artist 2026

The TBG+S Recent Graduate Residency Award offers a unique and substantial professional development opportunity to an emerging artist of talent and promise. The annual award includes a large free studio, an artist bursary of €7,000, and a variety of institutional supports to an artist who has graduated from an undergraduate degree in the past three years.

Aoife Ní Dhuinn is a visual artist from Clondalkin, Dublin. Through sculpture, drawing and image making, her work is concerned with big/small feelings, and peculiar aspects of modern culture. Using materials like wood, ceramics and pencil drawings, her practice reflects on the absurdities of modern life: 'the internet, being a teenager in ur 20s and learning how to drive.' Alongside her personal practice, Aoife Ní Dhuinn maintains a collaborative practice with Falon Weaver. Through a shared interest in existentialist thought, internet culture, and material exploration, their practice adopts a broad range of processes including concrete casting, ceramic sculpture, meme making, and going for walks.

Solo exhibitions include Hair Pin Bends, Platform Arts Belfast (2026); Email Shaped Clouds, Ormond Studios, 2023. Select group shows and projects include Right Here/ Right Now, Rua Red, Dublin (2025); Synthetic Artifacts, The Complex X Hardware (2025); Transatlantic Conversation He(arts), Muine Bheag Arts Radio, Episode 6, in collaboration with Falon Weaver (2025). Aoife Ní Dhuinn’s practice has received support from South Dublin County Council Bursary (2025); Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award (2023, 2024).

Aoife Ní Dhuinn describes the impact of the award on her practice and her hopes for the residency going forward:

"I am beyond thrilled to have received the TBG+S Recent Graduate award. In a time when studio space is increasingly difficult to access, the residency offers the invaluable luxury of space, time and stability. It will allow me to develop my work at a larger scale, deepen my engagement with my research and processes, and continue expanding the material language of my practice. I'm very excited to become part of the community at TBG+S. The opportunity to learn from artists that I admire, and build new professional relationships feels especially significant at this stage of my development. I feel incredibly fortunate to have received this award and I'm excited to see where the year leads."

TBG+S looks forward to supporting Aoife Ní Dhuinn as she develops her practice over the coming year and welcoming her to the studio complex and its creative community of artists.