Heather McAteer, 'Run From the Past into the Past'

£590.00

2024
Graphite and chalk pastel on paper
42 x 29 cm | framed: 53 x 42 cm (black painted wood frame)

Artist Statement
“My drawings depict unpopulated spaces which are infused with a melancholic sense of loss and absence. Following the tradition of Irish artists in exile revisiting their motherland through their art, images connect to the fractured landscapes of my youth during the most turbulent years of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in terms of personal and historical memory. A limited colour palette and the tonal possibilities of graphite create a haunting, psychological darkness which plays with a dichotomy of beauty and menace. A sense of tension is continued through the intimacy of scale and a confrontational, single point perspective where the audience is drawn into my world to look and wonder, but ultimately held at a distance from participating in the scene. In a wider context this undercurrent of uneasiness and possible threat evokes the ‘eerie’ and connects to a contemporary ‘Art of the Landscape’ where a disrupted pastoral view of nature is presented to suggest anxiety, crisis and alienation.

Ideas around memory, identity, and the ambiguous nature of home and belonging inform my current series of drawings on found paper. Featuring images of where I grew up in Belfast, these works evoke a partial return to a homeland where a legacy of violence still lingers. Existing fragments of text and maps from pages of archival materials fuse my own personal mythology with other histories and narratives to present unexpected commentaries and reveal subtexts. The resulting unquiet landscapes suggest uncertainty and an ongoing negotiation with the past.”

2024
Graphite and chalk pastel on paper
42 x 29 cm | framed: 53 x 42 cm (black painted wood frame)

Artist Statement
“My drawings depict unpopulated spaces which are infused with a melancholic sense of loss and absence. Following the tradition of Irish artists in exile revisiting their motherland through their art, images connect to the fractured landscapes of my youth during the most turbulent years of the ‘Troubles’ in Northern Ireland in terms of personal and historical memory. A limited colour palette and the tonal possibilities of graphite create a haunting, psychological darkness which plays with a dichotomy of beauty and menace. A sense of tension is continued through the intimacy of scale and a confrontational, single point perspective where the audience is drawn into my world to look and wonder, but ultimately held at a distance from participating in the scene. In a wider context this undercurrent of uneasiness and possible threat evokes the ‘eerie’ and connects to a contemporary ‘Art of the Landscape’ where a disrupted pastoral view of nature is presented to suggest anxiety, crisis and alienation.

Ideas around memory, identity, and the ambiguous nature of home and belonging inform my current series of drawings on found paper. Featuring images of where I grew up in Belfast, these works evoke a partial return to a homeland where a legacy of violence still lingers. Existing fragments of text and maps from pages of archival materials fuse my own personal mythology with other histories and narratives to present unexpected commentaries and reveal subtexts. The resulting unquiet landscapes suggest uncertainty and an ongoing negotiation with the past.”

Artist Biography

Originally from Belfast, Heather McAteer (b. 1968) specialises in graphite drawings which explore themes of loss, trauma and personal and collective memory reflecting on her formative years in Northern Ireland. She studied Fine Art at The University of Ulster (BA) and The University of Reading (MFA) where she graduated with a distinction.

Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally with solo exhibitions at West Berkshire Museum, Newbury (2025) and Open Hand Open Space, Reading (2019 & 2021) and a two-person exhibition at Flowerfield Arts Centre, Portstewart, Northern Ireland (2023).  Selected group exhibitions include, mostly recently, ‘Winter Group Show ’at Linden Hall Studios, Deal (2023, 2024 & 2025), ‘RBSA Drawing Prize Exhibition’ at RBSA Gallery, Birmingham (2023 & 2025), ‘Biennial Open’ & ‘172nd Annual Open Exhibition’, at  RWA, Bristol (2025), ‘Shadow/Sombre’ at Forum Grandela, Lisbon (2025), '100/50' at Unit 1 Gallery Workshop, London (2025), ‘Guildford House Open’ at Guildford House Gallery (2025), ’Irving Gallery Open 2026’ at Irving Gallery, Oxford, and ‘Works on Paper' at The Gallery at Green & Stone, London (2026).

 Heather has been selected for numerous awards, commissions and residencies. She was shortlisted for ‘The Derwent Art Prize 2026’ and is the recipient of 'The Damian Greenish Drawing Award' at the 7th Summer Exhibition at The Gallery at Green & Stone, London (2025). 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. The first book of her work, ‘Forests of Dreamland’, was published in June 2024.