Biography
Irish artist Niamh Barry (1968) founded her studio Niamh Barry Studio in 2001. With a multidisciplinary team of 10, she works on the creation of highly crafted light sculptures, installations, and sculptural furniture.
Barry manifests the motion and balance found in the human form, moments of nature and fluidity that she experiences everyday, in her work. With both depth and simplicity, Barry’s artworks bridge the practices between art and design culminating in forms of unparalleled beauty that are designed as site specific pieces. Barry's process is rooted in intuition. She begins with a series of rapid line drawings, allowing her to understand the essence of her work. From there, she creates maquettes and then the final sculpture, always striving for simplicity and perfection. Barry is known as a pioneering artist who is revolutionizing the world of sculpture with her use of LED lighting. A master of bronze engineering, she creates breathtaking three-dimensional drawings that are both visually striking and emotionally evocative.
All the artworks have the ability to transform spaces. The relationship between the forms and their scale relate both to the architectural spaces and the humans that experience them, by creating forms that define the spaces around them, drawing people together and by producing illumination that closely mimics that of fire and candlelight, both of which we are instinctively drawn to.
With her unique vision and innovative approach, Barry has become one of the most sought-after figures in the art and design world. Her work has been featured in major publications such as the Financial Times, Architectural Digest, and Galerie Magazine and is included in public and private collections around the world.
Barry has been included in numerous exhibitions and her work has been exhibited in a year-long solo exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland (2018-2020); Salon, Art & Design (2014-2022); Design Basel (2013-2017) Design Miami (2015-2017); Masterpiece (2018); Fog (2016-2019) amongst others. International awards include; 2020 winner of LIT design award; 2022 overall winner in the Createurs Design awards.