Aimee Melaugh

Shelter

Aimee Melaugh is a painter based in Derry. In 2018 she received a First-Class BA Honours Degree in Fine Art Painting from the Belfast School of Art. Melaugh was a recipient of the Belfast Print Workshop Residency Award in 2018 and has since exhibited at Platform Arts Belfast, PS2 and the ArtisAnn Gallery. She has taken part in various group exhibitions as part of Gallery 545. Melaugh has had a solo exhibition at The Glassworks, Derry, supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Melaugh has recently completed an artist residency with Art Arcadia in June 2021 and had a solo exhibition at St Augustine’s Old Schoolhouse in Derry. Her work is included in public collections such as the Belfast School of Art, The Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Civil Service, as well as various private collections.

Melaugh’s paintings present a burst of memory, depicting a moment in time and have the potential to be viewed as a door to re-evaluate past events, inviting the viewer to be transported into a different time and space. Trauma and identity are explored throughout Melaugh’s work. The artist often draws upon references to film and literature in response to traumatic events which have taken place throughout history. Inspiration for ‘Shelter’ is derived from old family war photographs taken from the time her grandfather served in the army during World War II. Other source imagery is from the early 1970’s at a time of conflict in Northern Ireland and depicts normality in the context of a surrounding chaos.