The committee of K-Fest Ireland’s foremost festival for the emerging arts are delighted to announce the winners of The Screaming Pope Prize 2022.
Five outstanding Irish based artists were carefully considered and selected by guest Judge Theo Hynan-Ratcliff and K-Fest Art Director Rochelle Lucey with Niamh McGuinness winning the coveted €1000 cash prize. In addition to this four finalists Glenn Gibson, Seiko Hayase, Adela Passas and Timpeall with Aoife Claffey & Padraic Barrett were also selected, each receiving a cash prize.
A bit about the winning artist Niamh:
Niamh McGuinness is a visual artist from the Burren Co.Clare currently living and working in Cork city. She graduated with a Master’s in fine art drawing from Glasgow School of Art in 2020. Her work explores heritage, myth, cultural identity, the body and the environment. She works across several mediums with a strong background in textiles and a current focus on sculptural installation.
The SPP winning piece is an interpretation of the legend of “ Glas Gaibhneen”, a legendary cow from Irish folklore.
In Niamh’s words: “The cow was said to be enormous and have beautiful gold rings as markings. It also was said to have infinite milk that could fill any vessel. It is attributed to have been owned by several different mythical figures and there are many variations of the legends surrounding it. My piece deals with the story of how its owner challenged the people to bring a vessel large enough to exhaust the profuse and endless milk stores of the cow. Eventually a wiley hag brought a colander and the cow was milked until it fell down in exhaustion.”
Learn more about our SPP 2022 winner & finalists below
Niamh McGuinness
Glenn Gibson
Seiko Hayase
Adela Passas
Timpeall
Aoife Claffey
Padraic Barrett
