About | chloeaustinart

Chloe Austin (she/her) is a visual artist, working with video, text and installation within her current practice. She is a PhD Researcher at Belfast School of Art, Ulster University having completed her MFA at BSOA in 2020 and her BA in Fine Art and Design at Crawford College, Cork in 2017. She is a studio member of Flax Arts Studios and currently in residence at Digital Arts Studios as part of their Future Labs Foundation Residency Programme.

Austin's work has been exhibited and published throughout Ireland and the UK. Her practice aims to capture the tension and ephemerality in text-based art, often in relation to queer culture and social inclusion.

My practice is concerned with the shifting intersections of language, identity, and gesture to produce multi-layered narratives. Identifying as a queer female artist, I am interested in using text as a reflective method to explore queer acts of resistance and refusal. I am infatuated with all things textual since, in Barthes’ words, "it wounds or seduces me".

She is a recipient of the Agility Award from The Arts Council of Ireland (2022), ACNI: Individuals Emergency Resilience Programme and the 126 Gallery Micro-Grant Programme (2021). She was also awarded the Alice Berger Hammerschlag Award from Belfast School of Art (2018) and the Cork Film Centre Exhibition Award (2017). Her work has been exhibited by galleries such as The MAC, GOMA Waterford, Golden Thread Gallery and Catalyst Arts.

In 2018, she co-founded and continues to act as Curator for Re-Vision Performing Arts Festival which takes place annually in Belfast. Re-Vision Festival is driven by an artist-led team that work to promote social inclusion, diversity and equality throughout diverse performing arts. This festival emerges from societal concerns involving LGBTQIA+ issues in Northern Ireland.