Dorothy Cross facts for kids

Dorothy Cross (born in 1956) is a famous Irish artist. She creates art using many different things, like sculpture, photography, video and installation. An installation is a type of art that uses a whole space or room. Dorothy Cross represented Ireland at a big art show called the Venice Biennale in 1993.

Her art often explores ideas about where we come from (cultural identity), our own stories (personal history), memories, and the difference between what we know and what we feel deep down. In 2009, the president of UCC said that Dorothy Cross is "one of Ireland’s leading artists."

Growing Up and Learning About Art

Dorothy Cross was born in 1956 in Cork, Ireland. She was one of three children. Her older brother, Tom, became a scientist who studied animals. Her older sister, Jane, was a swimmer who helped set a world record!

Dorothy herself was a very good swimmer when she was a teenager. At 15, she became the All-Ireland champion in the 100-meter breaststroke. She won more medals in swimming over the next few years.

She went to the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork. Then she studied in England at Leicester Polytechnic from 1974 to 1977. Later, she went to the San Francisco Art Institute in California. There, she earned a special degree in printmaking, which is a way of making art by printing images.

Her Art Career

Dorothy Cross started showing her art regularly in the mid-1980s. Many people first noticed her work with her big art installation called 'Ebb'. This was shown at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin, Ireland.

After that, in 1991, she created 'Powerhouse'. For this artwork, Dorothy often used 'found objects'. These are everyday items that she found, sometimes things that had been in her family for many years. She would then use these objects to create new art pieces. People have called her way of using found objects "poetic amalgamation," which means she combines things in a beautiful and thoughtful way.

In the early 1990s, Dorothy saw a special sieve (a tool for straining) made from a cow's udder in a museum in Norway. She said it was amazing to see a cow used for something other than milk! This gave her an idea. She started making sculptures using cured cowhide (cow skin), cow udders, and even stuffed snakes. Using udders made her feel a mix of surprise, humor, and excitement.

For example, her artwork Virgin Shroud (1993) is a veil made from cow skin. The udders form a kind of crown on top of the hidden figure. This piece makes you think of both the Virgin Mary and another famous artwork, a fur-lined teacup. Another piece, Saddle (also from 1993), has an upside-down udder as the seat of a horse's saddle.

Dorothy Cross is probably most famous for her public artwork called Ghost Ship (1998). For this, she took an old, unused light ship and painted it with special glowing paint. It was placed in Scotman's Bay, near Dublin's Dún Laoghaire Harbour, and it glowed brightly at night. It looked like a ghost ship!

More recently, she created a series of artworks called Medusae. These include pictures of a type of jellyfish called Chironex fleckeri. She worked with her brother Tom, the zoologist, on this series.

The Irish Museum of Modern Art had a big show of her work in 2005. This kind of show is called a retrospective, and it looks back at an artist's work over many years.

In 2014, she had an exhibition called 'View' at the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin. This show included new sculptures and photographs. These artworks showed how Dorothy explores the connection between people and nature. She loves to play with different materials, relationships, and time in her art.

Dorothy Cross was also chosen to be part of a special program called 'Indra's Net' at the 2022 Frieze Art Fair in London. This is a very important art fair.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

Dorothy Cross has had many solo art shows where only her work is displayed. Some of her important solo shows include:

• 1988: 'Ebb' at Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
• 1991: 'Powerhouse' at ICA, Philadelphia, and other galleries
• 1996: 'Even: Recent Work by Dorothy Cross' at Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
• 1998: 'Chiasm' at Project Arts Centre, Dublin
• 2005: A big show at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
• 2013: 'Connemara' at Turner Contemporary, UK

Awards and Recognition

In 2009, Dorothy Cross received a special award called an honorary doctorate from University College, Cork. This means they recognized her great achievements. She received another honorary doctorate in 2022 from Trinity College, Dublin.

When she was studying in the United States, she won a well-known award called the Pollock-Krasner Award in 1990. Her art has also received support from important groups like the Wellcome Trust and the Arts Council of Ireland.

Where to See Her Art

Dorothy Cross's artworks are part of many important art collections around the world. This means her art is kept safe and can be seen by the public in museums and galleries. Some of these places include:

• The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
• The Norton Collection, Santa Monica
• Tate Modern, London (which includes her artwork Virgin Shroud from 1993)
• The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin
• Museum of Fine Arts Houston