KERRANE, RIAN

Statement
Rian Kerrane applies cast and fabricated sculpture, site specificity, installation and printmaking as methodologies to examine poetic themes. Her attraction to well-used artifacts stems from the moving individuality that evokes the situation of the individual in a homogenizing industrial/consumer society.  Any object or substance can become sculptural material. Kerrane deliberately incorporates commonplace or industrial objects alongside highbrow traditional art materials. Cultural conformity shifts and evolves, and reflection on the tropes of another time’s products and packaging sheds light on our own situation.  For her the studio and gallery are a laboratory for a kind of pseudo-science and a physicalized celebration and critique of late modern culture.       

Biography
Born in Galway, Ireland, Rian Kerrane received her BA in Fine Arts Degree from the University of Ulster at Belfast before migrating to the United States where she earned her MFA from the University of New Orleans, Louisiana. Kerrane is Professor of Sculpture and Art Practices at the University of Colorado Denver, where she was awarded researcher of the year in 2017. Her work, which incorporates printmaking, installation, and foundry practices, has been shown nationally and internationally in Latvia, Italy, Austria, Mexico, and Ireland. Maintaining strong connections to Ireland, she runs a site-specific summer study abroad program at the Burren College of Art in County Clare.  

She was the Keynote for IRON R 2, Cork, Ireland in 2014 and featured artist in the IRON R 18. A board member for the Western Cast Iron Art Alliance Kerrane also contributed to steering the 7th International Conference in Contemporary Cast Iron Art (ICCCIA) in Latvia and co-director for performances for the 8th ICCCIA in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 2018.  Her residency at the National Sculpture Factory, Cork, Ireland, was followed by a solo exhibit, Line of Inquiry, at The Glebe Gallery in County Donegal. The Oscar Wallpaper was commissioned in 2019 for Between Us, the alleyway project sponsored by Downtown Denver Business Improvement District. Kerrane hosts nomadic foundry events in the region and values the interconnectivity between art practice and the community experience.  

http://riankerrane.com  
http://wciaa.org  
instagram: @rianannk