Niamh Porter

– Transat in Asoka Amarasinghe House & De Saram House, oil on canvas, 53 x 43 cm, 2020
– Case Study No.8, oil on canvas, 53 x 63 cm, 2021
(foto’s Django v. Ardenne)

Niamh’s practice responds to architecture through drawing and painting. She applies paint in thin, delicate layers with the suggestion of detail. Edges are blurred, and sections of the canvas are left unfilled. The dreamlike quality of light is translated into a palette of white, yellow, blue, and purple, while the warmth of wood and textiles creates a brief shift in colour.
Her current work looks at the great women architects of the Modernist movement and their designs for domestic space. Included is the work of Aino Aalto, Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, and Minnette de Silva. These architects challenge our expectations of domesticity by creating multifunctional spaces that are negotiated by the women who occupy them. Niamh links together the stories, relationships, and interests of these women through a collage of rooms and objects, to gain a deeper understanding of this architecture, by the act of drawing.