Artist Alice Maher has been shortlisted for the prestigious Drawing Prize 2025, awarded by the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation in France.
Artist Alice Maher has been shortlisted for the prestigious Drawing Prize 2025, awarded by the Daniel and Florence Guerlain Contemporary Art Foundation in France. The prize is given to artists for whom drawing is an integral part of their practice. All graphic means are allowed, except computer or mechanical processes.
From the start of her acclaimed career, Maher has considered drawing to be foundational to her practice. This is evident from her earliest works, such as The Thicket (1990), which was shown in Tate Liverpool the following year. This was Maher’s first show outside of Ireland and her nine large-scale, expressive drawings of young girls filled the space.
Across all her activities there is an intricate interplay of line and contour, which has its basis in the structures of drawing
Maher says that her subsequent installations began as drawings. Perhaps, then, they can be considered three-dimensional tracings and placings in space. Throughout her oeuvre, Maher’s recurrent themes involve the complex intertwining of nature, gender and the body. There is a fierce commitment to the political, ethical and aesthetic implications of female embodiment and identity. This is clearly visible through her continued and innovative use of different media, including cast sculpture, print and textiles. Across all her activities there is an an intricate interplay of line and contour, which has its basis in the structures of drawing.
Maher is shortlisted alongside Belgian and Italian artists Gideon Kiefer and Ettore Tripodi, both of whom have cultural connections to France through exhibitions, studies or residence. The winning artist receives a €15,000 prize and the foundation will gift a work by them to the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris. The two runners-up receive €5,000 each. All three artists are represented in an exhibition at the Palais Brongniart in Paris in March.
Alice Maher was born in 1956 in Ireland. She is represented by the David Nolan Gallery, New York, the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin and Purdy Hicks, London.
Francis Halsall
