www.amandacoogan.com
Biography
Performance is at the heart of Coogan’s art. Her powerful live events often form the basis for her videos and photographs. She has a real ability to condense an idea and to communicate it through her body.
Click here to view Amanda Coogans' CV
The performances are short, snappy and sassy, reflecting MTV generation values. She has her finger on the pulse of the modern psyche that allows her to connect with her audience. Sometimes the work paraphrases iconic images, like the sacred heart or Michelanglo’s David, but the artist jolts her audience into finding new meaning in the familiar. Coogan has recently been developing group performance as a means of releasing primeval human energies through a burst of exhilarating physical action.
Coogan studied sculpture in NCAD in Ireland and an MA in Performance Visual Art in Germany with Marina Abramovic. She performed in ‘Marking the Territories’ at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2001 and was an award winner at EV+A 2002, Limerick. In 2003, amaong others, she performed at the Venice Biennale and at P.A.C. gallery, Milan.
In 2004 Coogan was awarded the Aillied Irish Bank’s Annual Artist of promise prize. She exhibited at the irish Museum of Modern Art’s Artists for Amnesty show, The Liverpool Biennial International 04 and had a solo show at Derry’s Context gallery as part of their joyce festival. She also performed in performance loop, PS1 New York and at Cleaning the house NMAC, Malaga.
In January 2005 Coogan published the first monograph on her practice, A brick in the handbag in conjunction with her solo show at Limerick City Gallery of Art.She performed at the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, as part of their Egon Schiele exhibition and exhibited at the MARTa Museum, Herford, inaugral exhibition (my private) Heroes, among others.