Born in Dublin, Patricia Burns studied Fine Art at Dublin Institute of Technology and Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork. She lives and works in Cork.
Patricia Burns is interested in the hidden narratives that exist within the built environment and several recent bodies of work have explored the subject of home. Her paintings often focus on specific, in-between, places that she encounters in her daily life - her exhibition Morning Commute documented her morning drive from her house in Cork city out through the suburbs and into the countryside beyond.
Reviewing her previous exhibition, Dublin Paintings, in The Irish Times in 2016, Aidan Dunne noted that "Burns paints with increasing skill and assurance, suggesting things rather than spelling them out. Mist and dampness are pervasive... [and] the unknown, the incalculable, always lingers at the borders of her painting."
Mysterious in-between spaces, neither urban nor rural, recur frequently in her work. Anywhere and nowhere, familiar but not, they allow the viewer to project their own lived experience onto the paintings while simultaneously accompanying the artist on her travels.
Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the Lavit Gallery, Cork (2019); Taylor Galleries, Dublin (2024, 2021, 2019, 2016, 2014); Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford (2012); Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (2011); Vanguard Gallery, Cork (2008); and the Ashford Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (2007). In 2013 she received the ESB Silver Medal for her painting in the RHA Annual Exhibition, followed by the Whyte's Award in 2015. She has also exhibited in the Summer Exhibition at London's Royal Academy on several occasions. Burns' work is represented in corporate and private collections throughout Ireland and in the public collections of AIB Group, AXA Insurance, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, NUI Galway, and the OPW / State Art Collection, amongst others.