Current Board
Samar Nezamabad
Samar Nezamabad (b.1999) is an artist and curator based between Belfast and Limerick examining the nature of time, memory, and grief through experimental analogue photography and installation work.
She is a graduate of Fine Art Painting, Limerick School of Art & Design (LSAD) and served as chairperson of the LSAD Exhibition Society for the academic year of 2022-23. In 2023, she completed an internship with TULCA Festival of Visual Arts and worked as an Engagement Assistant with EVA International. She received the Collector General Purchase Award in 2023 for her work in the LSAD Graduate Show and was a member of the 2024 Douglas Hyde Gallery Student Forum.
She has a passion for providing opportunities for emerging artists to be brought into the public eye, which she has pursued both independently and within her role in the LSAD Exhibition Society. Her efforts have culminated in Work in Progress (2023) in Limerick School of Art & Design and ADVANCE (2022) in spacecraft studios, Limerick. She has exhibited her own work in The Complex, Dublin; Lismore Castle Arts, Waterford; Outset Gallery, Galway; VISUAL, Carlow; and Ormston House, Limerick.
Her curatorial ambitions moving forward centre on directing exhibitions that provide a notable experience for the viewer. This involves creating an encounter for the audience by implementing a degree of immersion into the presentation. Sustainability is also a point of concern for her, researching artistic practices that approach their method of making from the ground up, developing a system of creation that does not also destroy the earth from which it comes from.
Seán Ward
Seán Ward he/him (b.1999) is a curator based between Belfast and Derry. Having completed a Bachelor of Arts in Curating at Goldsmiths, University of London, his work explores the shared social labour of queerness.
Since graduating, Seán has held previous roles in arts administration with Gasworks and Whitechapel Gallery, London. This year he has held a series of workshops with Mid Ulster Pride and looks forward to continuing and encouraging a community-focused curatorial practice.
Emma Quin
Emma is a multi-media artist, writer and maker based in Belfast. Working with a variety of mediums, textures and pre-existing materials, Emma creates multi-dimensional works and text that communicates with the viewer. Throughout her writing and visual art, her practice borrows from familiar objects she encounters in her day-to-day life and her lived experiences. Emma also enjoys writing and publishing personal essays and cultural criticism, having work published online and in print by @polyesterzine @neighbourhoodmagazine and @readdork. Emma is currently an artist in residence at Digital Artist Studios Belfast and member of Soup Ink Writers Co-op.
Husk Bennett
Husk Bennett is a visual artist from Belfast, with a BA(Hons) in Fine Art & Art History from Manchester School of Art. Husk’s practice explores narratives of absurdity, queerness and humor within art.
Since graduating, Husk has exhibited extensively across the UK + Ireland including ‘The Gallery S1’ with Artichoke Trust, Short Supply’s ‘Queer Contemporaries’ in AIR Gallery, Manchester, and our very own FIX ‘21. Alongside this, he has taken part in The MAC’s Hatch & Scratch scheme from 2021-22, is on the committee for the Flax Arts Project Space and is currently supported by Belfast City Council.
Órlaith Mac Eoin Manus
Órlaith Mac Eoin Manus (She/Her) is a videographer, photographer and researcher based in both Dublin and Belfast. She graduated from NUI Galway in 2022 with a first-class honours degree in Human Rights (BA).
Órlaith has exhibited her photographic and film work in the 126 Gallery (Galway, 2023) andPallas Project studios (Dublin, 2024). Her work focuses on themes such as youth culture, as well as political and social injustices.
She was the lead researcher on Afri's report to government, End Direct Provision and Tackle the International Protection Process, 2022 which examined and criticised Ireland's current International Protection and Accommodation System.
When possible, she combines her passion for the arts with a commitment to Human Rights. Her research role on a variety of documentaries involved reporting on relevant issues including violence against women (Until Death, 2022) and the spread of far-right disinformation (premiering Autumn 2024).
Social justice is central to Órlaith's artistic output and research expertise.
Previous Directors
Silvia Koistinen, Rachael Melvin, Dominic McKeown, Cecelia Graham, Kate Murphy, Manuela Moser, Jen Alexander, Tara McGinn, Rachel Botha, Thomas Wells, Leah Corbett, Emma Brennan, Anne Mager, Edy Fung, Liam McCartan, Peter Glasgow,Siobhan Kelly, Conor Mullan, John Macormac, Michael Edgar, Alessia Cargnelli, Emily McFarland, Joey O’Gorman, Edel O’ Reilly, Mitch Conlon, Mary Stevens, Michaela Butler, Jane Butler, Phillip McCrilly, Brígh Strawbridge, Iain Griffin, Amy Brooks, Alice Clark, Rob Hilken, Katrina Sheena Smyth, Alissa Kleist, Ruaidhri Lennon, David Mahon, Emmanuelle Nègre, Tonya McMullan, Eoin Dara, Nathan Crothers, Catherine Neill, Kim McAleese, Mark De Conink, Anne McAuley, John Cashin, Charlotte Bosanquet, Aideen Doran, Kate McCullough, Johanna Leech, Fionnuala Doran, Sara o Gorman, Rachel Brown, Brighdin Farren, Caelan Bristow, Colm Clarke, Benjamin de Burca, Fuyuka Shindo, Leo Devlin, Helen Sharp, Lucy Edwards, Jude Bennett, Meabh O’Donnell, Kim Montgomery, Brendan O’Neill, Phil Hession, Lurach Bredin, Cian Donnelly, Clive Murphy, Allan Hughes, John Mathews, Ursula Burke, Deirdre McKenna, Elina Medley, Justin McKeown, Cherie Driver, Fiona Ni Mhaoilir, Niall Mc Cabe, Julie Bacon, Grainne Cullen, Seamus Harahan, Elina Medley, Joanna Fursmann, Keike Twisselmann, Jane Anderson, Stephen Hackett, Stella d’Ailly, Phil Collins, Heather Allen, Ruth Jones, Dan Shipsides, Brian Patterson, Niamh O’Malley, Angela Darby, Eoghan Mc Tigue, Peter Richards, Susan Phillipz, Toby Dennet, Duncan Campbell, Dougal Mc Kenzie, Sandra Johnston, Siofra Campbell, Robert Peters, Derval Fitzgerald, Karen Vaughan, Eillis O’Baoill, Mark Orange