Eleana Bernal Donnellan

Elena Bernal Donnellan (b.1999) is an Irish / Spanish visual artist from Galway, Ireland. She recently graduated from the Limerick School of Art and Design where she completed her BA in Fine Art Painting. She currently works with EVA International as a production assistant.

Recent exhibitions include: 2021: RALLY: LSAD Graduate Showcase 2021 (Online); 2020: LSAD Artists on Display (The Crescent Shopping Centre, Limerick); Narrating the New Normal (Online); 2019: Extract (The Hunt Museum, Limerick); 2018: A5 Art Fair (Galway Arts Centre [GAC], Galway); 2016: Agitating Space (GAC, Galway); The Condition of Others Zine (GAC, Galway).

A Room of One’s Own draws on the sense of safety and escape from the anxieties of reality that the bedroom provides for each of us individually and for society. By focusing on the delicacy of bedclothes and blankets (our protection from the outside world), and zooming in on the creases and folds near the edges, Elena highlights the line between safety and the unknown. Through emphasising the emptiness and stillness of space in the work, the observed environment detaches itself from reality, building a semi-abstract landscape, a dreamland of sorts, an alternative to our restricted milieu. The painting acts as a momentary distraction from the ever-growing surreal nature of our society.

In a world where the extraordinary is becoming the new ordinary, Elena chooses to highlight the extraordinary in the ordinary.