Allyson Keehan is an Irish artist based in Glasgow, UK. She holds a PhD in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art (2021) and an MFA from Byam Shaw School of Art, UAL (2004). Her work explores the expanded field of painting through the lens of motherhood. Using drapery as both material and metaphor, she constructs layered, tactile spaces that reflect the body’s endurance, intimacy, and rupture. Cloth becomes a site of care, memory, and transformation.
Keehan has exhibited extensively, with her most recent exhibition taking place at Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh. Her work is included in notable permanent collections such as the Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and the Office of Public Works (OPW). In addition to her artistic practice, Keehan has co-curated several projects and is a founding member of S/TAC: Shell/ter Artist Collective, which has exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland and Limerick City Gallery of Art. Keehan has received numerous accolades, including being shortlisted for the Ingram Prize (2025), the Contemporary British Painting Prize (2023) and the BEEP Painting Prize (2022). She was awarded the Bet Low Trust Fund (2023), Artist Network Company Bursary (2022), Wellcome Trust Scholarship (2015), Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship (2012), Golden Fleece Award Merit Prize (2012), and the Arts Council Bursary (2012).
Keehan has exhibited extensively, with her most recent exhibition taking place at Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh. Her work is included in notable permanent collections such as the Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and the Office of Public Works (OPW). In addition to her artistic practice, Keehan has co-curated several projects and is a founding member of S/TAC: Shell/ter Artist Collective, which has exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland and Limerick City Gallery of Art. Keehan has received numerous accolades, including being shortlisted for the Ingram Prize (2025), the Contemporary British Painting Prize (2023) and the BEEP Painting Prize (2022). She was awarded the Bet Low Trust Fund (2023), Artist Network Company Bursary (2022), Wellcome Trust Scholarship (2015), Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship (2012), Golden Fleece Award Merit Prize (2012), and the Arts Council Bursary (2012).
SOLO & TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2024 Shifting Entanglements with Pippa Young, Arusha Gallery Edinburgh
2023 Strange Desire Ushered In, The Briggait Wasps, Glasgow
2019 Virtues of Real/Necessity of Imaginary, with Sin Park, The Art Space, Glasgow
2014 Further Complications of Hybrid Notions, Claremorris Gallery, Mayo
2012 Life Drawings, Draiocht Arts Centre, Dublin
Shimmering Synthetic Appearances; I Want to Put You Back In, Queen Street Studios, Belfast
2011 Lookie Likie, Mimetic Protagonist, Molesworth Gallery, Dublin
2010 Blue Studio Project Exhibition, Takt Gallery, Berlin
Comparatively Peculiar, Alley Arts Centre, Tyrone, NI
2008 Appropriately Strange and Disciplined, Monster Truck Gallery, Dublin
2006 Symptoms of Fetishism, with Frances Jung, Draíocht Arts Centre, Dublin
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Ingram Prize Exhibition London
Vignette, Salon 21 New York
Between Flesh and Reflection, Galleria Umberto Benappi Turin
195th Royal Hibernian Academy Annual
2024 When the Curtain Falls Blue Shop Gallery London
Permission to touch? The Dot Project London
In a dream in a happy house Limerick City Gallery (with S/TAC)
The ties that bind GOMA Waterford (with S/TAC)
You're on the Spectrum Now Ballinglen Museum of Art
2023 Contemporary British Painting Prize exhibition Huddersfield Art Gallery & Thameside Studios and Gallery London
Shelter (S/TAC Shell/ter Artist Collective Exhibition) the National Gallery of Ireland
Recent Acquisitions Ballinglen Museum of Art
A Ladder is Always There Draiocht Gallery
Woven Lavit Gallery
193rd Royal Hibernian Academy Annual
WASPS X Kirkcudbright, Kirkudbright Galleries
2022 BEEP Painting Biennial
Swallowing Geography curator Rachel Botha Glebe House and Gallery
192nd Royal Hibernian Academy Annual
2021 Border Crossing, curated by Kieran Brimm, Pineapple Arts Middlesborough
Yellow Archangel, co-curators Allyson Keehan and Paul Bramley, General Practice Lincoln
2020 Yellow Archangel, curated by Paul Bramley Oceans Apart Gallery Manchester
2019 Clash Femininity, curated by Vava Collective, South Block, Glasgow
2017 Royal Scottish Academy Open Exhibition, Edinburgh
Transmission Members Show, Glasgow
2016 Whereabouts you are, co-curators Allyson Keehan and Viviana Checchia (CCA), Reid Gallery Glasgow
Collective Memory curators Anna Bauer & Benjamin Lee Sperry. International exchange between
Celine Gallery Glasgow & Brunswick Studio New York
2015 RHA Annual, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Periodical Review #4, Ormston House, Limerick
Lonely Planet, Luan Gallery, Athlone
2014 Periodical Review #4, Pallas Projects/Studios, Dublin
Winter Open, Rua Red, Dublin
Eigse Open, Visual, Carlow
RHA Annual, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
2013 Still Life and Interiors, curator Bernadette Madden, Gormleys Fine Art, Dublin
RHA Annual, Invited Artist, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
2012 RHA Annual, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Eigse Open Submission, Visual, Carlow
Positions, curator Dermot Browne, Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork
2011 NEXT/Art Chicago, Chicago
Drawing Thursday, RHA Drawing Exhibition, Bourne Vincent Gallery, Limerick
2010 Winter Show, Molesworth Gallery, Dublin
Boyle Arts Festival, Boyle, Roscommon
Dunamaise Open Submisson, selector Geraldine O Neill, Dunamaise Arts Centre Laois
RHA Annual, invited artist, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Open Studios, Takt Kunstprojektraum, Berlin
2009 New Irish Art: Group Exhibition curator Aidan Dunne, Purdy Hicks Gallery London
Dunamaise Open Submission, selector Martin Gale, Dunamaise Art Centre Laois
2008 Kinsale Arts Week, Cork
Subjected Galway Arts Festival
Eigse Annual, juried competition, Carlow
2007 Modern Exotics with Jack Donovan, Brian McMahon, John Collins. Limerick
2004 Currents: travelling exhibition by the OPW Ireland
Gin or Tonic, Empire Gallery, London UK
EDUCATION
PhD in Fine Art Painting Glasgow School of Art 2015 - 2021
Masters in Fine Art Byam Shaw College of Art, University of the Arts London 2004
BA Hons Degree Fine Art (Painting) Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland 2002
Erasmus Athens School of Art, Greece 2001
RESIDENCIES/FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
2025 Ingram Prize Finalist
2024 VACMA Award Creative Scotland and Glasgow City Council
2023 Shortlisted Contemporary British Painting Prize
Bet Low Trust Award
2022 Longlisted Contemporary British Painting Prize
BEEP Painting Prize shortlisted
Time Space Money a-n Artist Network Company Bursary
2019 The Presidents Award UK
2018 SGSAH Doctoral Internship at Hospitalfield SCO
2015 Scholarship from the Wellcome Trust UK
2014 Cill Rialaig Artist Residency, IRE
2013 Ballinglen Arts Foundation Fellowship, IRE
2012 Royal Hibernian Academy Residency, IRE
Visual Arts Bursary, Arts Council Ireland
Merit Award, Golden Fleece Award
2010 Takt Kunstprojektraum Residency, Berlin, DE
Travel and Training Bursary, Arts Council Ireland
2008 Draíocht Art Centre Residency, IRE
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
2021 Yellow Archangel, Co-curators Allyson Keehan and Paul Bramley, General Practice Lincoln
2016 Whereabouts you are, co-curators Allyson Keehan and Viviana Checchia (CCA), Reid Gallery Glasgow
ART COLLECTIVE
S/TAC: Shell/ter Artist Collective
PUBLICATIONS
Keehan, A. 2022 Desiring Drapery Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Catalogue
Keehan, A. 2021 Painting and Materiality: Three Creative Strategies for Transformation PhD Thesis
Keehan, A. 2018 'Propositions for Prosthetics and Painting' in Physical or Otherwise: Suggestions and Encounters Glasgow
Keehan, A. 2013 Life Drawings 2010 - 2012
Keehan, A. 2010 Blue Studio Project Berlin
REVIEWS
Aidan Dunne, Further Complications of Hybrid Notions, The Irish Times- Tues, September 23, 2014
Cristin Leach Hughes, Seeing is Believing, Sunday Times Culture, November, 2013
John Graham, Life Drawings Review, Critique, Visual Artists Ireland Newsheet, July, 2012
Aidan Dunne, Lookie Likie, Mimetic Protagonist, The Irish Times - Friday, March 25, 2011
Aidan Dunne, Contriving a Striking Absence on Canvas, The Irish Times, Wed 02 Feb 2008
Aidan Dunne, A Very Desirable Joint Venture, The Irish Times, Wed 09 Sep 2006
Shan Kelly, Objects of Desire, Artists and Illustrators, March 2011
PERMANENT COLLECTIONS
Trinity College Dublin
Arts Council of Ireland
Office of Public Works Ireland
Ballinglen Arts Foundation Collection
Limerick Co-Ordination Office
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