Bio
Heather McAteer creates evocative landscape works in graphite, drawing upon images of her childhood locale in Belfast. They reflect on her experience of living through ‘The Troubles’ and address themes of history, memory and identity.
After completing her BA in Fine Art at Belfast School of Art (1987-91) she relocated to Reading to take her MFA at the School of Art (1992-94). In addition to solo exhibitions at 571 Oxford Road Gallery, Reading in 2019 and 2021 and a two-person exhibition, ‘Uncertain Landscapes’ (with Alex Dewart) at Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, Northern Ireland in 2023, her work has also been selected for a wide range of group exhibitions nationally. These include ‘Responsive Space’ at Modern Art Oxford (2020), ’The Human Factor’ at Star Brewery Gallery, Lewes (2022), ‘RBSA Drawing Prize Exhibition’ at RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (2023), ‘Winter Group Show' at Linden Hall Studios, Deal (2023 & 2024), ‘Ancient Landscapes' at Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield (2024), ‘A Room of One’s Own’ at Irving Gallery, Oxford (2024), 'Biennial Open: Works on Paper' at RWA, Bristol (2025), 'SGFA 104th Annual Exhibition', Mall Galleries, London (2025) and 'Shadow/Sombra' at Forum Grandela, Lisbon (2025). A new solo exhibition of her work, 'This must be the place', opened at West Berkshire Museum in March 2025.
Heather has been selected for numerous awards, commissions and residencies. In 2020 she was awarded ‘The Drawing Prize’ at the 139th Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Belfast and selected for a Jelly (ACE/ National Lottery/DCMS funded) ‘At Home’ Artist Residency. In 2021 she was commissioned by the Museum of English Rural Life to make work for their ’51 Voices’ (ACE funded) Project and selected by Waldemar Januszczak as a finalist in the Save Reading Gaol ‘Freedom’ artwork competition. She is the subject of one of the artists films by Reading-based artist/filmmaker Matt Hulse commissioned by Jelly, Reading in 2023 to celebrate of their 30th anniversary year.
The first book of her work, 'Forests of Dreamland', was published in June 2024 by Redden Press.
She works full-time on her art from her home studio in Charvil, Reading.
Artist Statement
My graphite drawings on paper depict unpopulated landscapes which are infused with a melancholic sense of loss and absence. Following the tradition of Irish artists in exile revisiting their homeland through their art, images connect to the fractured landscapes of my childhood during the most turbulent years of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in terms of personal and historical memory. A restrained colour palette and the tonal possibilities of graphite create a haunting, psychological darkness and play with a dichotomy of beauty and menace. A sense of tension is continued through the intimacy of scale and a confrontational, single point perspective.
An undercurrent of uneasiness evokes the ‘eerie’ and links to a contemporary ‘Art of the Landscape’ where a disrupted pastoral view of nature is presented to suggest crisis and uncertainty.
Ideas around memory, identity and trauma inform my current series of drawings on pages of old books and maps. My process involves applying gesso to erase areas, while leaving some details partially visible. The images I draw on top are inspired by the areas of parkland near where I grew up in Belfast where a legacy of violence still lingers. The resulting works, which fuse existing fragments with my own personal mythology, are psychological landscapes which engage with the Celtic mythology of ‘Thin Places’. These spaces are thresholds between physical and spiritual worlds which hold the possibility of reconciliation between the past and the present and offer transformation and healing.
Heather is an Associate artist at Jelly an also an exhibiting artist with Reading Guild of Artists.
Click here to watch a short film by Matt Hulse, comissioned by Jelly, about my work.
Click here to read an interview with Chisara Vidale from Fern & Glade.
Click here to read an article about my work by Dr. Slavka Sverakova.
All work is for sale unless specified otherwise. To enquire, please visit the Contact page.