About Amanda Jane Graham

This is a profile black and white photo of Irish artist Amanda Jane Graham. She has short blonde hair and is wearing black framed glasses, black short sleeved top and large chunky necklace.

Amanda Jane Graham is an artist, sociologist, and former hairstylist re-evaluating art history from a hairdressing perspective.

Welcome to my website!

My practice weaves together key aspects of my life: visual art, sociology, and my twenty-four years as a hairstylist. I apply a sociological analysis to my experiences and investigate the intertwined histories of art and hairdressing, and present my findings through distinctive, detailed artworks. These reveal the rich, fascinating, and largely unknown history of the hairdressing profession and the discrimination hairdressers experienced from the Renaissance to the present day, when artistic recognition for their work was frequently denied.

Building on this research, my creative approach encompasses drawings, sculpture, and sound installations. The artwork invites a re-evaluation of historical art from a hairstylist’s perspective, affirming centuries of collaboration. In hairdressing, the mirror is considered a stylist’s third eye: standing behind a client, the stylist looks them directly in the eye. Similarly, my artwork becomes my third eye. I am in direct conversation with the viewer, asking them to observe the often-overlooked expertise in historical art. By using familiar salon equipment, techniques, and hairdressing methodologies as titles, I underscore hair's materiality, texture, and tactility. This shift in focus from fashion to form highlights hairstylists' significant contributions to art history and places the hairdressing profession directly within the frame of historical portraiture.

My Biography

 I exhibit nationally and internationally. Since completing my Master's Degree in Fine Art in 2011, I have been awarded an MLitt in Sociology in 2019 and had had 21 solo exhibitions and 30 group exhibitions. My most recent solo shows were at the LAB Gallery Dublin, the Whitaker Museum & Gallery UK, Leitrim Sculpture Centre and the Royal Dublin Convention Centre in 2024, the Irish Architectural Archive, Dublin, in 2023, the Dock Arts Centre, Leitrim, in 2019, and the RHA, Dublin, in 2017. In 2023, I received a Leitrim Art Award for my contribution to the arts. I was a finalist for the Sir John Soane Drawing Office Residency and the Business to Arts Best Creativity in the Workplace Award. My artwork and research was awarded the Creative Ireland Creative Communities Economic Action Fund in 2022; I received the Platform 31 Bursary in 2021 and 2020, the Spark Residency Award, and is the recipient of the Arts Council of Ireland Bursary and Agility Awards. Recent publications include RTÉ Arena, RTÉ Brainstorm, RTÉ Culture, News Talk’s Talking History, and the Irish Times.

There is more information on my work available here.