Colin McGookin

Colin McGookin was born in Belfast , Ireland in 1958 and graduated from the Ulster College of Art in 1981. He has held many group and solo exhibitions in Ireland and abroad and won a number of prizes including 1st Prize at the Claremorris Open and Conor Prize at the Royal Ulster Academy to which he was elected associate member in 1989. He has curated and helped organize many group exhibitions at home and internationally in particular ‘Beyond the Partitions’ winner of the AIB Better Ireland Award 1993 and ‘Millennium 123’ winner of a major award from the Millennium Commission in 2000. ‘UKwithNY’ New York 2001 and ‘Greengrass Bluegrass Newgrass’ 2001-2005 with several exchange projects connecting Ireland and Kentucky USA. He also assisted in curating a series of Irish group exhibitions at the Barrick Museum in the University of Nevada Las Vegas and has lectured in many establishments including University of Ulster at Belfast, Queens University Belfast, Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, University of Nevada Las Vegas and Claremont Business College Pomona California. He is currently Artist in Residence for one of the largest health trusts in Ireland .