About the work

Joy Gerrard was born in Co. Tipperary and lives in Belfast, working from Queen Street Studios. Her work focuses on themes of protest and urban space. Subjects include climate change, Brexit, BLM protests and women’s equality. These crowds are re-imaged in large monochrome paintings and small complex drawings made with Japanese ink. For the Biennial Gerrard has isolated an American flag from a protest image. The flag is flown upside down indicating a sign of distress. In nautical terms an inverted flag indicates an emergency or SOS. The flag was often used during BLM marches in 2020, however Gerrard has revisited this image in 2024 to highlight the precarious nature of American politics during a time of populism. In 2020 Gerrard was elected an Associate member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. She is represented by Cristea Roberts Gallery, London and her work is in numerous public and private collections.

Date and country of birth

1971, IE

Career Highlights

Recent solo exhibitions include: Precarious Freedom: Crowds, Flags, Barriers which toured from the Highlanes Gallery, (2021/22) to Galway International Arts Festival and the Butler Gallery; Put it to the People at the Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2020); Shot crowd at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2017);  Protest Crowd, Peer UK, London (2015). Selected group exhibitions include: A Matter of Time at the Crawford Gallery, Cork, 2024; Image as Protest, a two person show with Paula Rego, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (2023); Collage. A Political Act at the Ulster Museum, Belfast (2022); Protest and Remembrance, Cristea Roberts Gallery, London, (2019)