Creative Network
Dr Catriona McAra
Dr Catriona McAra is University Curator at Leeds Arts University. She was awarded her doctorate in History of Art at the University of Glasgow, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh.
She has published extensively on the art and literature of Dorothea Tanning and Leonora Carrington with a particular interest in feminist-surrealist legacies in contemporary practice. She is author of A Surrealist Stratigraphy of Dorothea Tanning’s Chasm (Routledge, 2017), and co-editor with Jonathan P. Eburne of Leonora Carrington and the International Avant-Garde (Manchester University Press, 2017). She is currently working on her second book, a study of Leonora Carrington’s significance in contemporary art, literature and performance.
Another interest is the intersection between art and science. Having published widely on the entomological art of Tessa Farmer (2016), Catriona is currently editing a volume on the geological aesthetics of GSA alumna, Ilana Halperin (2021).
Catriona has worked in a curatorial capacity with many contemporary artists, including GSA alumni: Lucy Skaer, Ilana Halperin, and Laurence Figgis, among others.
For her selection Catriona has chosen the work of Painting and Printmaking student Rosa Park. with further recognition for the works of Elidh Munro from Silversmithing and Jewellery, Melody Uyanga Ramsay from Fashion Design and Rosie Trevill from Fine Art Photography.