Miriam Mc Connon was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1977. Since her graduation from the National College of Art and Design, Ireland in 1999 and following a post-graduate diploma at the Cyprus College of Art, Mc Connon has presented 12 solo exhibitions in Ireland and Cyprus and more than 25 group exhibitions nationally and internationally including the Beijing Biennale 2012/2015 and the International Drawing Biennale in Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. Her work can be found the Cypriot and Irish state collections. She currently lives and works in Cyprus, also spending long periods of time in Ireland each year.
Mc Connon’s current practice speaks about the human narrative of displacement at a domestic level, in particular the struggle to establish a new home following conflict. The work is concerned with the social aspect of conflict as opposed to the political one. She meets regularly with women and their families who have been displaced by conflict and war over the last five decades from countries such as Serbia, Egypt, Cyprus, Sudan, Iran, Lebanon and Syria. Through these testimonies of survival she examines how public perceptions of present day refugees and refugees of the past can differ yet the narrative remains the same. It examines the resilience of the domestic space and its necessity in the struggle to overcome displacement and begin again.
Mc Connon is also involved as an artist in bi-communal initiatives that aim to bring the two sides of the Cyprus divide closer together. In 2016 she coordinated the bi-communal project ‘Common Ground’ with Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot communities from which the documentary ‘Common Ground went on to be acclaimed at international film festivals.
Mc Connon works in the mediums of installation, painting and large scale drawings.