| Diana Copperwhite | |
| Birth Date: | |
| Birth Place: | Limerick, Ireland |
| Nationality: | Irish |
| Alma Mater: | National College of Art and Design Winchester School of Art Limerick School of Art and Design |
| Elected: | Aosdána (2021) |
| Known For: | oil painting |
| Style: | Abstract expressionism |
Diana Copperwhite (born 1969) is an Irish painter.[1] She is a member of Aosdána, an elite Irish association of artists.[2] [3]
Copperwhite was born in Limerick in 1969.[4] [5] She grew up in Patrickswell. Her father, Patrick Copperwhite, was a science teacher and self-taught artist who exhibited at the Oriel Gallery.[6]
Copperwhite studied at Limerick School of Art and Design, the National College of Art and Design (NCAD, Dublin) and Winchester School of Art.[7]
Copperwhite is chiefly known for her work in oil painting; art critic Gail Levin says that her work "creates an exquisite tension between abstraction and figuration or representation of any kind. […] vibrating spectral bands have become a kind of a trademark in Copperwhite’s recent large paintings […] Copperwhite believes that in her paintings she has responded to Ireland’s changeable weather, which may have caused her to see the world as if she was looking through a visor into a “grey low-light vision."[8] She has also named 1960s psychedelic album covers as inspiration.[9]
She lives and works in Dublin and New York City.[10] She has lectured at NCAD, Western Sydney University and the University of Massachusetts; she was elected to Aosdána in 2021.[11] Her work is on permanent exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Limerick City Gallery of Art and Áras an Uachtaráin (the residence of the President of Ireland).[12]