Sinéad Aldridge is a painter working from her studio in Co. Sligo Ireland. She makes oil paintings that are alive and psychologically charged where paint performs through gesture. Aldridge refuses to choose between figuration and abstraction instead she creates power in the tension between them.
My work draws upon paintings extensive historical pool and conspires to expand, subvert and create new visual interpretations, presenting the viewer with a rich experiential encounter. The performative nature of mark-making, where touch and the handmade link like a shadow are inevitably tied to human presence. I make intimate, richly layered abstract paintings. When colour and touch align, the work becomes a poetic dialogue on the nature of identity.
Born in 1963, Butler-Aldridge grew up in Belfast. Sinéad earned a BA in Fine Art Painting at Camberwell Art College London 1985 and was awarded a DAAD scholarship in Germany in 1986. In London in the 80s she worked in a factory studio in Brixton producing large scale figurative abstract painting influenced by artists like de Kooning & Francis Bacon. Returning to the Republic of Ireland in 1991, she settled down on the North West coast near Sligo and taught Fine Art to BA students at the I.T Sligo for over a decade. She has also produced video installations & performances and also works on collaborative projects with the painting collective HERmetics-in_the_studio and with master potter Con Lynch in the project Ceramic Poem. In 2026 Sinéad returned to Ireland after working for over a decade in Berlin, Germany.
Solo Exhibitions include: Coming Out Of Winter (2023), The Irish Embassy Berlin. The Sky is Falling (2019), After Image (2015), Fenderesky Gallery Belfast. unattainable/joy- RHA Dublin (2010). Works & Days, Sligo Art Gallery (2008), Penumbra, The Dock Carrick-on-Shannon (2006), New Work, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast (2007 & 2003) Fast Time, The Model Gallery Sligo (2002)
Group exhibitions include: ‘How Painters Think’, Outset Gallery Galway 2026.Existential Licence, International Painting, Curated by Shaun McDowell & Halime Özdemir di Larusso, 88 Friary Road, London 2025. Group # 14, New & Abstract Showroom Berlin 2025. Kunstbox, Kleingarten Projekt, Cologne Germany 2025. Here, There & Them, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection, Flowerfield Arts Centre, N.Ireland 2025. Auction 10, Weserhalle Gallery Berlin 2024.Comme un léger contretemps/ A Slight Hiccup, La Grange Gallery Cernay-lès-Reims (2022). Penumbra, FE Mc Williams Gallery (2020). Way Out, La Grange Gallery France, BEEP Painting Biennale Wales: 2020, 2018 2016. Take Place, Institut für Alles Mögliche Berlin (2019). Art Spring, Berlin ( 2020, 2019). Kaleidoscope Slovenia (2014). Die Sprache ist das Haus in dem wir .leben: Künstlerverein Malkasten Düsseldorf (2012) Accorage Gorizia Italy (2010). Occasion, Fenderesky Gallery Belfast (2009) Out of Context Archeus Fine Art London (2004). Irish Contemporary Art Galleri Weinburger Copenhagen (1999).
Sinéad is recipient of awards: Arts Council of Ireland (2004 & 1993) Íontas prize for painting (1996) Northern Ireland Film Council (1994). Residencies include: GlougauAir Berlin (2021), Oberfäelzer Kuenstlerhaus Germany (2017) Ballinglen Arts Foundation (2002) Maze Prison Belfast (1998) Artists Work Programme I.M.M.A Dublin (1997) Tyrone Guthrie Centre (1991). Her work is held in public collections: Nothern Ireland Arts Council, National University Galway, Mayo Co. Council. Ballinglen Arts Foundation. Boyle Civic Art Collection, Co Monaghan V.E.C & St Louise Comprehensive College Belfast.