Image: Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary, 2010

When I was four years old, while collecting my sister with my mother from pre-school in Donnybrook, I saw an easel in the activity room, one of those with pots of paints of individual primary colours with a brush sticking out of each pot, I remember the feeling that I wanted to physically throw myself at the easel, that I had to inhabit it. From then on, I knew I was going to be an artist.

Sarah Iremonger was born in Dublin (1965) lives and works in Kinsale Co. Cork, Ireland; is a Board Member of the Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland since 2023; a member of 'RedInk' Neurodivergent Artists Support Group since 2022; was a Board Member of the Backwater Artists Group, Cork 2003-09 (Chair 2006-09); a co-founder of the Sirius Arts Centre Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland 1985 volunteering there until 1999 and working as Visual Arts Curator, Program and Project Manager and Artists Liaison 1999-2015; Iremonger studied Pre-diploma and Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, Ireland 1983-85; Fine Art Printmaking and Photography at the Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork, Ireland 1985-87 and an MA in European Fine Art at the Winchester School of Art, Southampton University, UK 1998.

Recent work featured at 'Art Evolve' RDS Art Fair, Dublin, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland 2026; LA Art Show (Modern and Contemporary) and Art Palm Beach (Contemporary), both USA, with the Oliver Sears Gallery 2026. A collaboration with 'RECOMP:OST' for HKCR Hong Kong Community Radio 2025; participation in the exhibition 'From the Land' at the John Martin Gallery, London, UK, with Oliver Sears Gallery 2025; drawings from the Horizons series transformed into 3-D digital landscapes presented at the '2nd Symposium on Digital Art in Ireland' UCC University College Cork, Ireland 2024; Vessels and Horizons work exhibited at 'Coalescence' the Lavit Gallery, Cork, Ireland 2024; participation in 'Quietly Dispelling the Dark' Arts Council Collection exhibition selected by Colm Tóibín, VISUAL, Centre of Contemporary Art, Carlow, Ireland 2024; participation in 'Residence 3' exhibition with Oliver Sears Gallery & Ting Ying Gallery, Cromwell Place, London, UK 2023; Vessels exhibition at Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland supported by a Cork County Council Creative Artists Bursary, 2022; Build Your Own Horizon/BYOH public participation project Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre with Bealtaine Artist in Residence and Cork County Council exhibited at 'Re:Group - Fragments in Constellation' Skibbereen Arts Festival, Skibbreen, Co. Cork, Ireland 2022; The Hunting Box Party was exhibited at 'Change Hunters Hide' Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie, Hofgut Molsberg, Westerwald, Germany 2021.

Horizons collaborative project with poet Derek Mahon (1941-2020) 2014-24, was funded through a Cork County Council Arts Grants Scheme Award 2015 and exhibited at Oliver Sears Gallery Dublin, Ireland in 2018 and 2019; Vessels/Research '24/7' online slide show for the National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland 2020; Vessels 'The Time of Our Lives' 2020 and 'New & Recent Work' 2021 on line exhibitions with Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin, Ireland and 'An Incandescent Connection' studio exhibition, Kinsale, Co. Cork, Ireland 2021; Top Half of the Hero neon work, part of the Crawford collection was exhibited at 'Heroes and Villains' Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland 2018-19.

Other exhibitions include the '184th RHA Royal Hibernian Academy's Annual Exhibition' Dublin, Ireland 2014 (invited artist); 'World View of An Oyster' curated for Cork County Council and Macroom Town Council, Macroom, Co. Cork, Ireland with Helen Horgan, Maximilian Le Cain and Mick O’Shea, catalogue essay by Danyel Ferrari and designed by Stuart Caughlin of edit+ 2013; other curatorial projects include 'Sub-plots' for allerArt Bludenz, Austria 2011 and Sirius Arts Centre Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland 2012 and the 'Cork Harbour Project' with Sirius Arts Centre 2007-09.

The Hunting Box Party was exhibited at 'Hochstitze (Raised Hides)' Knoll Gallery, Vienna, Austria 2010 and Budapest, Hungary 2011, 'Buffer Zone' at The Armory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Stadium, Australia 2011 and 'Change - Hunters Hide' Emmanuel Walderdorff Galerie, Hofgut Molsberg, Westerwald, Germany 2021; earlier exhibitions include Temple Bar Gallery and Studios, Dublin, Ireland 2001 and the Turku Art Museum, Finland 2003 with Lumpy Art History; 'L’Imaginaire Irlandais' at Villesalem Abbey in association with Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France and Cork Paintings exhibited at the John David Mooney Foundation, Chicago, USA 1996.

Iremonger was Artist in Resident at the Sydney Olympic Park and Broken Hill Art Exchange, Australia 2011; Von Hess Resident at the Borowsky Centre exhibiting I thought I dreamed of you at Gallery 817 UARTS University of The Arts Philadelphia, USA 2010; I thought I dreamed of you exhibited at the West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland 2009-10 and the Yarra Sculpture Gallery, Melbourne, Australia 2010.

Awards include 'Bealtaine Artist in Residence' Uillinn, West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen, Co. Cork, Ireland 2022; Cork County Council Arts Grant Scheme Awards 2022, 2015 and 2008; Culture Ireland Awards for exhibitions in 2011, 2010, 2003, 1998 and 1995; Arts Council of Ireland, Agility Award 2022, Bursary Award 2005 and New Project Award 2002; Artist in Residence Fellowship at the Kunstlerhaus Schloss Wiepersdorf, Germany 2003.

Papers include The Lady of the Lake is Hiding in the Expanded Field for the '2nd Symposium on Digital Art in Ireland' UCC, University College Cork and Sample Studios, Cork, Ireland 2024; Space-Time: Horizons, Atlantis and A Rain Bridge for 'Art Poetique' in Memorium Derek Mahon (Study Day) Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris, France 2022; Floating Above the Horizon for the 'Derek Mahon 80th Birthday Celebration Conference' Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland 2021 and 'Artists of Cobh and Great Island' as part of 'This Must Be the Place' Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland 2018.

Commissions include Upside-down Mountains neon installation and painted mural for the OPW Office of Public Works at the Northside Civic Centre, Coolock, Dublin, Ireland 2003 and Where’s Me Cork? and Freedom Box video works for 'Airgador - Cork Silver and Gold' exhibition, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland for European City of Culture Cork, 2005.

Iremonger illustrated 'Atlantis' poetry pamphlet by Derek Mahon, 2019 and 'The Rain Bridge' children's book were published by The Gallery Press 2017 - "a story written by Derek Mahon for his son, then aged six, a tale of loss, kindness and recovery. Iremonger’s illustrations match, in their simplicity, the purity of the author’s style." (Peter Fallon 2017); and 'IL Ponte Della Pioggia' was published in Italian by Valigie Rosse, Italy 2018 and Macedonia 2019.

To view recent work, contact Oliver Sears Gallery / +353 (0)1 6449459 / 33 Fitzwilliam St Upper, Dublin 2, Ireland

Sarah Iremonger 2026