Tara McGinn’s cross-disciplinary, or non-disciplinary, practice explores the fabric of language in objects, architectural surfaces, and textures as texts—and vice versa. Their work deconstructs and re-collages sentimentality, tradition, queer identity, bodily trauma, and the comforts found in shared spaces.
ARTIST BIO
Tara McGinn (they/them) is a visual artist and writer from Ireland. Recent shows include The Collision Project at starling starling, Limerick (2025), and gluuut at Glassbox du nord, Paris and Montpellier (2025). Selected exhibitions include An Intimate Public, a solo exhibition at PS², Belfast (2023), curated by Cecelia Graham and Grace Jackson; Betwixt – Held group showcase at Mimosa House Gallery, London (2024); and Mother Tongue, a group exhibition at the MAC, Belfast (2024). They have been a recipient of Arts Council of Ireland funding since 2021 and received the SIAP Award from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland in 2022. Recent residencies include the Creación Collectiva residency at Can Serrat, Spain (2024); an artist residency at the CCI in Paris (2024), supported by Wexford County Council; and the inaugural 2024 Writer-in-Residence with Mirror Lamp Press and the Complex in Dublin.
Cream Clots, 2025, Tara McGinn, 3.2 x 16.75 x 9.9cm, Ceramic stoneware, lead free glaze
Left hand top of page: Soft Laundry (for a performance) 2023, Tara McGinn, PS2 Belfast. Credit: Simon Mills.
An Intimate Public (installation view) Tara McGinn, 2023 at PS2 Belfast. Credit: Simon Mills.
Initially shaped by a period of isolation, caregiving, and familial proximity, the work has expanded into a broader critique of the aesthetics and cultural assumptions surrounding care and domesticity.
Domestic Fossil (or matriarchal lineage), 2021, Tara McGinn, Cast resin, gloss varnish. Photo credit: Ben Malcolmson.
They approach the exhibition as a storytelling device, allowing each site to shape the work’s ongoing evolution.
A Placeholder, Tara McGinn, 2023, PS2 Belfast. Credit: Simon Mills.
Their sculptural work engages with the materials and syntaxes of domestic life, crockery, delftware, grime, and waste, as evidence of living. They excavate and reconfigure these elements through ceramics, embroidery, bio-casts, and latex, connecting the subjective interior with shifting architectures of “home.”
Spilled Milk #5, 2022. Tara McGinn, 17x22x17cm, Terracotta clay, acrylic paint, polymer relief outliner (various), acrylic ink, water based gloss varnish.
Parallel to this, McGinn’s reflexive writing builds fictions that articulate narratives around class, bodily labour, and time, informing their art criticism and occasional performed readings.
Untitled (because I saw alot of things on the telly when I was younger that I probably shouldn't have), Tara McGinn, 2023.
