Deirdre McLoughlin began working with clay in 1972, when she was handed a lump of clay and invited to make something. From the beginning, her coiled forms have been abstract in intent and feeling. Between 1981 and 1985, she developed her skills and language of form among the Sodeisha artists in Kyoto. From Japan, she travelled throughout China.
Sculpture, rather than ceramics in itself, has remained her main concern as an artist. Her work is shaped by ideas of space, balance, geometry, formal logic and material quality. Her forms have been described in different ways, including organic, abstract expressionist, biomorphic and minimalist, as well as edgy, touchable, elegant and humorous. She continues to explore physical movement through practices such as dance and meditation. Places where she has lived or stayed have also influenced her work, from the grey Irish landscape and the straight lines of the Dutch landscape to the volcanic energy of Hawaii. She developed a deep feeling for indigenous people in Indiana, while in Japan her work was considered to show the influence of Jōmon pottery.
McLoughlin’s first solo exhibition was held at Gallery Beni, Kyoto, in 1984. Her major institutional exhibitions include RECENT WORKS at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, in 1993, which travelled to Limerick City Gallery of Art and Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, and SHAPING THE VOID, a 2012 Design and Crafts Council of Ireland exhibition that travelled to Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork, and the Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris.
She was honoured at the Korean International Ceramic Biennale in 2007 and 2019, and was a two-time winner of the Ceramics of Europe Westerwald Prize, in 2004 and 2014. She is currently represented by Modern Shapes Gallery, Antwerp, and Taste Contemporary, Geneva, where she will have a solo exhibition in 2027. Recent group exhibitions have taken place in Oxford, London, Tokyo, Cork, and across five venues in Benelux between 2023 and 2026. In 2026, the Loewe Foundation and La Residencia Belmond awarded her a residency.
McLoughlin graduated with a BA in Humanities from Trinity College Dublin. In 2021, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Trinity College Dublin for her life’s work as a visual artist. She is based in Amsterdam.
Visit Deirdre McLoughlin’s website and Instagram page.
Featured work
Selected works, 2021-2026
