Elaine Byrne

Elaine Byrne is an artist working at the intersection of film, photography, and sculpture. Her work investigates borders, labor, and overlooked histories, often blending archival material, essayistic storytelling, and experimental film techniques to explore how power and displacement shape human experience.

Her media-based works have been exhibited at IMMA (Dublin), the Crawford Art Gallery (Cork), Slought (Philadelphia), EFA (NYC), and screened at international film festivals, including ArtPix. Her broader practice has been exhibited widely., including at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery (Dublin), the Shelly & Donald Rubin Foundation (NYC), the Chocolate Factory art space (Switzerland), and Schloss Britz (Berlin). She was recently elected to the Royal Hibernian Academy, Ireland’s leading artist-run institution for contemporary art and her work has received multiple awards, including the Arte Laguna Prize, the TINA Art Prize, and the Combat Art Prize.

Elaine is represented by Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, and my work is held in major public and private collections, including the National Collection of Ireland, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Rosenbach Museum and Library. She has a PhD from Temple University (2024) and has taught at Temple University and has been a visiting lecturer at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Temple University, and UAM (Mexico) for several years.