Noel Hensey announced as the winner of the VAI Experiment! Award 2023

Visual Artists Ireland are delighted to announce Noel Hensey as the winner of the Experiment! Award 2023. Experiment! provides an alternative form of residency. Based on feedback from VAI members, it is clear that it can be difficult for the majority of visual artists to take time out of their lives to avail of residential opportunities. Therefore, we designed this award in the form of research support, providing €5000 for the selected artist to experiment and undertake research, with the aim of bringing their practice to a new level. The open-call competition was launched in October 2023 and was open to VAI members at all career stages, working across any media. 

Noel Hensey is a Kildare-based multi-disciplinary conceptual artist, working primarily in photography, sculpture, sound, video and installation. Between 2008 and 2010, he completed a PG Dip and MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Arts, London. His art practice is inspired by Buddhist practices and philosophies, comedy and humour, and by conceptual and post-pop art. Noel’s artistic methods include appropriation, specifically re-interpretation and re-contextualisation, interchanging mediums, and site-specific work.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Openness (2023) 36 Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; Verloren Und Gefunden (2021) SomoS Art House, Berlin; Homage (2020) Peak, London; and So You’re Going To Die (2017) Eight Gallery, Dublin. Noel’s work has been presented in group exhibitions in: Gorey School of Art (Wexford), RHA (Dublin), a.topos (Venice), OUTPOST (Norwich), Site Gallery and S1 Artspace (Sheffield), 601 Artspace (New York), and The ICA, Unit 1 Gallery, APT Gallery, and Schwartz Gallery (all in London).

For the Experiment! Award 2023, Noel will take time out from family caring responsibilities to concentrate on his art practice. He will undertake a two-week, self-directed residency at Leitrim Sculpture Centre, where he will experiment with materials, such as jesmonite and bronze, and learn processes like mould-making and bronze-casting. He will use these skills to make more permanent versions of his ‘readymade’ sculptures.

Upon receiving the award, Noel stated:

I am honoured to be this year’s winner of VAI’s Experiment Award. VAI has played a huge part in my development as an artist, from discovering various opportunities through the eBulletin, and gaining confidence in presenting my work at Show and Tell events, to learning about the professional aspects of being an artist in webinars, and meeting other artists and art professionals at the annual Get Together event. I would personally like to thank the VAI staff, both past and present, for all their support over the years. The award will allow me to expand my practice in new creative directions through developing sculpture skills. Professionally, the prestige and recognition of being selected for this award will enhance the critical advancement of my career.