Cecily Brennan (b. 1955)

Cecily Brennan is an Irish artist, born in 1955. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin and has shown extensively nationally and internationally. Her work is held in all of the major Irish public and private collections.

Her work addresses psychological damage and recovery, both metaphorically, in landscape, in depictions of skin diseases and their treatment, and in basic science demonstrations, and directly, through film and video work, considering grief, self-harm, melancholia and psychosis. Her practice encompasses film, photography, drawing, printmaking, painting (in egg tempera, oil and watercolour) casting, and sound.

She is a member of Aosdána and is currently Chair of its organising committee, the Toscaireacht. She helped establish the Visual Arts Centre, a shared studio space, and served on various Boards and committees associated with the arts in Ireland. She was a founder of the Artists’ Campaign to Repeal the Eight Amendment, which was part of the successful campaign to guarantee reproductive rights to Irish women.