Síomha Harrington’s practice revolves around a deeply personal exploration of power dynamics, identity, and the dichotomy of pleasure and pain. Influenced by her upbringing around dysfunctional relationships and violence, her work reflects themes of control, vulnerability, and the complexity of human connection. Using small, deliberate brushstrokes, Harrington evokes a sense of control while imbuing her paintings with an intimate, charged atmosphere. Her subjects are not only fully aware of the viewer’s gaze, but they actively confront it in an anti-voyeristic act, inhabiting highly choreographed scenes that feel theatrical while remaining deeply personal. For Harrington, painting becomes both a performance of reality and a means of processing memories, where she can blend control with elements of play and transformation.

Harrington draws inspiration from Surrealism and Magic Realism, finding particular resonance with symbolism, and the uncanny. Her work builds a visual language of recurring emblems - especially as eggs and fetish wear - that connect to themes of femininity, identity, and power play. The latex garments, as featured in ‘Drunken Angel’, are a particularly evocative example of Harrington’s interest in the latter: “Any kind of fetish wear brings out the idea of who is the submissive party and who is dominant,” she explains, playing with and subverting such roles by empowering her subjects through authoritative stances and assertive gazes directed at the viewer.

Her approach to Magic Realism introduces subtle yet disconcerting shifts, where the familiar feels slightly “off,” encouraging the viewer to question what lies beneath the surface. In ‘Drunken Angel’, Harrington captures this tension with a towering figure whose glowing skin contrasts against a dark, ominous sky. The figure looms above the bystander, her gaze both commanding and enigmatic. Despite being alone, her presence is overwhelming, inviting reflection on these feelings of power and submission, and the complex emotions they provoke. “I wanted this painting to feel almost otherworldly.” This interplay between reality and the surreal heightens the narrative in Harrington’s work, creating spaces that are as unsettling as they are evocative.

Síomha Harrington (b. 1997, Ireland) is currently based in Brighton after completing her BA at
University of Brighton in 2023. She has shown work in various group shows, including
Glyndebourne Opera House's Fair Ground, Eve Liebe Gallery’s Boundless Whispers and Huang Contemporary’s Sun and Moon in China. Harrington was recently selected for Bloomberg’s New Contemporaries 2024, exhibited in the Levinsky Gallery in Plymouth and the ICA in London.