Alan Phelan is showing in the main exhibition at the 61st Venice Biennale. Phelan has an installation of 18 Joly screen photographs on view, as well as a series of site-specific works spread across the Arsenale and Central Pavilion of the Giardini. The exhibition, curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, features 111 invited participants from across the globe – among them, individual artists, collaborative duos, collectives, and artist-led organisations.
Alan Phelan (b.1968) is an artist based in Dublin whose practice began in photography and has extended into many different media and mediums with a focus on interpretation, language and collaboration. He studied at Dublin City University and Rochester Institute of Technology, New York.
Recent exhibitions and projects include CCI, Paris; Void, Derry; RHA, Dublin; The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon (2019-21); Company of Others, CCA, Derry (2019-21); TBG+S Atrium (2019); The LAB, Dublin (2019); Glucksman Gallery, Cork (2019) and the Molesworth Gallery (2021, 2023 & 2025). Our kind, commissioned by Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane for 2016/1916 was also screened in Oslo, Bergen, Derry, Belfast and Carlow where it won the Hotron Éigse Art Prize. Internationally he has shown at Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin; Garage, Rotterdam; Dada Post, Berlin; Loop, Barcelona; Videonale.15 Bonn Kunstmuseum; Detroit, Stockholm; Bozar, Brussels; Treignac Projet, France; Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai; Oksasenkatu 11, Helsinki; Mina Dresden Gallery, San Francisco; Galería Del Infinito Arte, Buenos Aires; ŠKUC, Ljubljana; SKC Gallery, Belgrade; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Public art commissions include works for Dublin City Council, Dublin South County Council, St Michael’s House Special National School Raheny and the Dept of Communications. Recent commissions include Sculpture Dublin, O'Connell Plinth, City Hall and Void OffSites. He was the NCAD School of Fine Art Artist in Residence for 2019-20.
Phelan has had three solo shows at the Molesworth Gallery - Fleurs TarabscoteĢ (2021), Happiness Engineering (2023), and Temporal Furniture (2025).
