Biography

Clare Langan is an internationally recognised artist working primarily in film and photography. She studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and later completed a film workshop at NYU under a Fulbright Scholarship. In 2017, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from the National University of Ireland and in 2019, she was elected a member of Aosdána.

Langan’s work has gained significant international recognition and she has represented Ireland in major international biennales and exhibitions, including the 25th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil (2002), The Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool (2002), The Singapore Biennale (2008), The Dojima River Biennale, Osaka (2009), The Busan Biennale, South Korea (2010), and the B3 Biennal of the Moving Image, Frankfurt (2017). In 2003, she presented A Film Trilogy at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York and the RHA, Dublin.

Her films have achieved numerous awards, including the Principal Prize at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival in Germany (2007) and the Prix Videoformes Award in France (2013). Flight from the City (2015) was selected by The Crawford Gallery for ‘Artists’ Film International’ (AFI), which toured to prestigious venues including Whitechapel Gallery (London), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), NBK (Berlin), Bonniers Konsthall (Stockholm), Ballroom Marfa (Texas), and The Museum of Modern Art (Moscow).

In 2020, her film The Heart of a Tree premiered at Kino Der Kunst in Munich, where it was acquired by the Fondazione In Between Art and Film in Rome, accompanied by an essay by Teresa Castro. The film went on to win ‘The Progressive Vision Curtin O'Donoghue Photography Prize’ at the RHA Annual Exhibition in 2022. The Heart of a Tree was also screened at the WildDogs International Screendance Festival in Calgary, Canada, in 2025.

Recent exhibitions of Langan’s work include At the Gates of Silent Memory (The Luan Gallery, Athlone, 2023), A New Dawn Fades (Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast, 2023), The Voyage Out (Gyldenpris Kunsthall, Norway, 2023), Elizium (Sarah Walker Gallery, 2023), 8 Alba (Dimora delle Balze, Sicily, 2023), and The Rewilding (Galway International Arts Festival, 2024). In 2023, her films were also acquired by The Crawford Gallery of Art’s National Collection. In 2025, Alchemy (2023) is featured in Living Canvas at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA).

In 2025, her work has been presented in Homeland 2025, “ábhar dóchais” (Hope, strength and ‘there is hope’) at Damer House Gallery; LOOP Barcelona – Miratges Mirages; and SYMBIOSIS | Art between man and nature at the Center for Contemporary Art in the Augsburg Glass Palace, running through April 2026. She will have a major new solo exhibition, Earthbound (2025), following a residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris.

Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections, including IMMA, The Crawford Gallery of Art, The Arts Council of Ireland, Fondazione In Between Art and Film (Rome), The Office of Public Works, The Tony Podesta Collection (Washington), and The Hugo and Carla Brown Collection (UK). She has also undertaken public commissions for institutions such as NUI Maynooth and Castletown House.

Langan’s practice continues to explore the climate crisis, landscape, memory, and human intervention, securing her place as a leading figure in contemporary moving image art.