RDS Visual Art Awards 2020 - Winners announced

Mason Hayes & Curran LLP is delighted to support the 2020 RDS Visual Art Awards, one of the most important platforms for visual art graduates in Ireland with a prize fund of €32,500. Now in its fourth year, the RDS Mason Hayes & Curran LLP Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award gives the winner full-time access to a room and studio space for 3 months in the Centre Culturel Irlandais in the heart of Paris.

Commenting on the firm's support of the award, Christine O'Donovan, Chair, Mason Hayes & Curran LLP, said "Mason Hayes & Curran LLP is very pleased to continue our support in 2020 for the RDS Visual Art Awards for graduating students from Irish art colleges. We primarily support artists based in Ireland, through commissions, hosting exhibitions and purchasing work for our collection and we are the proud custodians of one of the most important private corporate collections of contemporary art. The RDS Mason Hayes & Curran LLP Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award provides the winner with a wonderful opportunity to further their professional development and we hope this award will act as a springboard for an emerging artist at the early formative stage in their career.”

The winners of the 2020 awards have now been announced, full details are below. We are particularly pleased to annnounce the winner of the RDS Mason Hayes & Curran LLP Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award, Nadia Armstrong. Nadia graduated from NCAD this year with a first in her BA in Fine Art with Critical Cultures (International). She was awarded the Fire Station Artists’ Studios 2020 Graduate Award & Residency for Digital Media, a Digital Society Bursary Award and the Goethe Institute’s AI-Residency Award. She is currently studying studying on the MFA Art in the Contemporary World at NCAD. Nadia works at the intersection between the analogue and the digital world, interrogating the systems and networks of control within which modern humans finds themselves. You can find more information on her work on her website here. http://nadiajarmstrong.com

RDS Taylor Art Award (€10,000) – Jill Beardsworth, GMIT Centre for Creative Arts & Media

RDS Centre Culturel Irlandais Residency Award, supported by Mason Hayes & Curran LLP (value €5,000 plus €1,000 cash prize) - Nadia Armstrong, NCAD

RHA Graduate Studio Award (value €5,000 + €2,500 stipend sponsored by Whyte’s) – Dominique Crowley, NCAD

R.C. Lewis-Crosby (€5,000) – Maria Maarbjerg, TU Dublin School of Creative Arts

RDS Whyte’s Award (€5,000) – Michelle Malone, TU Dublin School of Creative Arts

The shortlist of artists has now been announced and are listed below. The shortlist features graduates from art schools all over the island of Ireland. For more information on the shortlist and the awards, please click here.