Cork-born installation artist Linda Quinlan was yesterday awarded the AIB Art Prize for 2006. The award, worth €20,000, was presented by AIB Group chief executive Eugene Sheehy at a packed ceremony in the Royal Hibernian Academy Gallagher Gallery.
Quinlan was nominated by Cork's Crawford Municipal Art Gallery and the award will go towards the cost of an exhibition of her work there next year.
Incidentally, a smaller exhibition of her work opens in the Fenton Gallery in Cork near the end of this month.
In her installations she uses a wide range of recycled and fabricated materials, including laboratory equipment, domestic ornaments and furniture, to create unsettling environments that comment on the nature of contemporary life.
The three other shortlisted artists were Seán Lynch, whose work offers a critical perspective on architectural history; Austin McQuinn, who makes multimedia installations, and Eamon O'Kane, who has explored the nature of the spaces in which art is produced and displayed. The three runners-up each receive €1,500.
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