Gerard Byrne

Gerard Byrne is an Irish artist working primarily with lens-based media, including film, video, and photography, to explore the paradoxical interplay between time and image.

Biography of Gerard Byrne

Gerard Byrne was born in 1969 in Dublin, Ireland. He is a graduate of the National College of Art & Design in Dublin (1991) and the New School for Social Research in New York (1998). Additionally, Byrne participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program in New York (1999).

Byrne works as a visiting lecturer at universities and art schools internationally, including the Royal College of Art, London; the Royal Art Academy of Copenhagen; University of Ulster, Northern Ireland; Manchester Metropolitan University, UK; the Rochester Institute of Technology, UK; the National College of Art & Design, Dublin, and Bergen Academy of Arts, Norway. Additionally, he holds the position of Permanent Lecturer in Fine Art Sculpture at Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland.

During Byrne's career, his work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide. His artwork can be found in various esteemed collections, including The Tate Collection, London, UK; FRAC Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France; MUDAM, Luxembourg; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands, and many more.

Currently, Gerard Byrne lives and works in Dublin. 

Gerard Byrne's Art Style

Byrne works primarily with lens-based media, including film, video, and photography. Through these mediums, he explores the paradoxical interplay between time and image. Meticulously capturing and reconstructing the cultural ephemera of the past century, he delves into a vast array of sources, from highbrow art press to men's magazines, and museum displays to commercial radio stations.

With a touch of laconic humor, Byrne's projects delve into the ambiguity of language and explore the nuances of what is gained or lost in translation from text to image.

Byrne's works have delved into various themes, including the legacy of Modernism, the evolution of attitudes toward sexuality, and the transition from collective sources of entertainment to the fragmented media culture of the 21st Century.

His analysis of the recent past and its mythologies offers profound insights into the present. He reminds us that the current moment is not an inevitable result but rather one of various potential outcomes. Moreover, he demonstrates how alternative futures can persist through cultural artifacts, preserving diverse possibilities for our collective narrative.