Image: Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Fingal County Council Arts Office and the Royal Hibernian Academy have named Fingal artist Aideen Farrell as the recipient of the ‘RHA School Studio Residency 2026/2028’. The funded award will provide Farrell with studio space at the RHA for two years, beginning at the end of October 2026. Exact dates have yet to be confirmed.
The residency is open to professional practising artists at all career stages working in visual art. The 2026/2028 award marks the first year in which the programme has been extended from one year to two, giving the selected artist a longer period for research and production.
The RHA School is a purpose-built facility within the RHA Gallery in Dublin, with individual studios, open-plan drawing studios and a library. It is an artist-led space focused on skill-based learning in visual art, with peer learning central to its activities. The school supports both traditional and contemporary approaches to art-making and provides training intended for artists working across the varied forms of current practice.
Sarah O’Neill, Fingal Arts Officer, said the organisation was “delighted to have Aideen in the RHA Studio for 2026-2028”. She added that the two-year format would allow the artist to “fully immerse” herself in her practice. Colin Martin, Head of the RHA School, described Farrell’s work as moving across sculpture and installation, using found objects and readymade materials to create “staged infrastructural ruins”.
Farrell’s practice develops through the collection and assembly of materials into new configurations and site-responsive spatial assemblages. According to the RHA, the Dublin-based artist traverses disused railways and canals to gather found materials for sculpture, photography, drawing and installation, exploring ideas of ruin, extraction and transformation. Farrell said the residency would give her “a secure space to focus” on longer-term research and making.
During the residency, Farrell plans to respond to industrial landscapes and infrastructural ruins through material detritus and traces of routes and stories. Her proposed work will involve sculptural processes with found and made materials, allowing for iterative outcomes over the two-year period. Farrell holds a BA in Fine Art and Visual Culture from the National College of Art and Design and an MA in Fine Art from TU Dublin. Her listed exhibitions include solo presentations at Custom House Gallery, Pallas Projects/Studios and the Linenhall Arts Centre, while her awards include Fingal County Council Artist Support Scheme grants and the Arts Council’s Agility Award and Visual Arts Bursary. The residency is scheduled to begin in October 2026.
