Daphne Wright (b. 1963, County Longford, Ireland) lives and works in Dublin.
Wright creates sculptural installations that address often unspoken human experience. Working across materials including plaster, tinfoil, unfired clay, sound, and video, she employs fragile and ephemeral media to explore vulnerability, care, and impermanence. Her practice focuses on thresholds and transitional states, examining the spaces between childhood and adulthood, presence and absence, and life and death.
Wright has exhibited internationally, including at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Tate Gallery, Liverpool; the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome; the Davis Museum, USA; the Hellenic Parliament with NEON, Athens; the Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon; and Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 2018, she curated The Ethics of Scrutiny at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).
She is the recipient of the Paul Hamlyn Award, the Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship, and the British School at Rome Fellowship. Wright is a member of Aosdána and is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.
Her work is held in major public collections including Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; the National Gallery of Ireland; Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA); Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; and the RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Practice Overview
Wright works across materials including plaster, tinfoil, unfired clay, sound and video. Her installations address thresholds and transitional states, examining themes such as:
Presence and absence
Childhood and adulthood
Care, vulnerability and dependency
Domestic space and material culture
Life, loss and memory
Her work is frequently presented in museum and institutional contexts and is recognised for its intimate scale, material sensitivity and psychological intensity.
International Exhibitions
Daphne Wright has exhibited internationally at major institutions including:
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Tate Liverpool
Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome
Emotional Archaeology, Arnolfini, Bristol & National Trust, 2016
Prayer Project, Davis Museum, USA, 2017
Public Collections
Works by Daphne Wright are held in major public collections including:
Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), Dublin
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
RISD Museum, Providence
Towner Eastbourne, UK
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
Vehbi Koç Collection, Istanbul , Turkey
Awards and Recognition
Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award
Henry Moore Foundation Fellowship
British School at Rome Fellowship
Member of Aosdána
Associate Academician, Royal Hibernian Academy
Fellow, Royal Society of Sculptors
Curatorial and Institutional Activity
In 2018 Wright curated The Ethics of Scrutiny at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), reflecting her ongoing engagement with institutional and critical contexts.
Representation
Daphne Wright is represented by Frith Street Gallery, London.
Keywords for Research and Curatorial Context
Contemporary sculpture
Museum installation
Material culture and domestic life
Care, vulnerability and memory
Figurative and object-based practice
International institutional exhibitions
Enquiries
For exhibitions, loans, acquisitions, press or institutional enquiries, please visit the Contact page:
