Darek Fortas graduated with MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art. He has worked with a range of established creative and cultural partners, and his work has been exhibited nationally and internationally (LE BAL, Paris, 2018; Bloomberg New Contemporaries, London, 2018, and Newcastle, 2017; RUA RED, Dublin, 2016; The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2022; among others).

His socially engaged lens-based practice has been offering a poetic and uncompromised take on the shared history, heritage, power relationships, and current issues we face as a society. Through his work, Fortas accentuates the potential of lens-based form as a mode of deconstruction, the role of images in the distribution of power, and the subversive value of a lens-based mode of enquiry.

In 2014, he was awarded the Camera Clara Prize by The Grésigny Foundation in Paris. Fortas was also shortlisted for the MAC International 2014 Art Prize as a part of the MAC International Biennial. He won the Propeller Fine Art Award 2011 and was shortlisted for The Foam Paul Huf Award (2012) and the BMW Residency Award at Musée Nicéphore Niépce (2018)

His works have been featured in the British Journal of Photography, Irish Arts Review, Source Photographic Review, Uncertain States, and various online photography blogs and magazines.

Fortas’ works are included in a number of public and private collections, including Institut Polonais Paris, Fondation Grésigny and Pierre Passebon Gallery Paris. In 2018, the UK Government Art Collection acquired work from ‘Skene’ project.

He received the Developing Your Creative Practice Award by the Arts Council England.




Curriculum Vitae
Lives and works in London
studio@darekfortas.com

Education:

Royal College of Art, MA Fine Art Photography
The University of Dublin, BA (Hons) Photography

Awards:

2023/12  Adam Mickiewicz Institute Grant, Warsaw, Poland
2021/01  Developing Your Creative Practice Award, Arts Council England, London, United Kingdom 
2016/07  Artful Dodgers & Royal College of Art Graduate Award, London, United Kingdom
2016/04  RUA RED Gallery Solo Exhibition Award, Dublin, Ireland
2015/10  Travel and Training Award, The Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
2015/09  Jean-Luc Lagardère Foundation Photography Bursary (shortlisted), Paris, France
2015/08  Royal College of Art, Fine Art Bursary Award, London, UK
2015/08  Royal College of Art, HEFCE Bursary, London, UK
2014/11  Camera Clara Prize, Foundation Grésigny, Paris, France
2014/09  Adam Mickiewicz Institute Grant, Warsaw, Poland
2014/07  MAC International 2014 Art Prize, Belfast, Northern Ireland (shortlisted)
2014/03  Royal College of Art, HEFCE Bursary, London, UK
2013/02  Adam Mickiewicz Institute Grant, Warsaw, Poland
2012/11  Visual Art Project Award, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
2012/11  Culture Ireland, International Culture Programme Grant, Dublin, Ireland
2012/07  PhotoIreland Festival 2012 portfolio review winner, Dublin, Ireland
2012/01  The Foam Paul Huf Award 2012 nominee, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012/01  2nd Alliance Française Photography Award nominee, Dublin, Ireland
2011/10  Dublin Institute of Technology Medal, Dublin, Ireland
2011/07  Propeller Fine Art Award, Dublin, Ireland

Solo Exhibitions:

2016/09 RUA RED, Skene, Dublin, Ireland
2012/07 Coal Story, Now Art Festival, Galeria do Palácio Porto, Portugal
2012/01 Coal Story, The Copper House Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2009/11  The View of Photography: After-Party Portraits, The Crow Gallery, Dublin

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2022/01 ‘Intersectional Geographies‘ (Ignacio Acosta, ⁣Xavier Ribas, ⁣Lisa Barnard, ⁣Jacqueline Ennis-Cole, ⁣Miranda Pennell, ⁣Judy Rabinowitz, Price ⁣David, Severn, ⁣Darek Fortas and ⁣Janine Wiedel), Martin Parr Foundation, Bristol, United Kingdom
2021/09  ‘Summer Show 2021‘, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, United Kingdom
2018/02  ‘En Suspens’, LE BAL, Paris, France
2018/01  Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Block 336, London, UK
2017/09  Bloomberg New Contemporaries, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle, UK
2015/09  ‘Les Gueules Noires de l’Europe’, 9-9 Bis, Oignies, France
2015/03  RCA Secret, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom
2015/03  ‘Focal Point’ (Darek Fortas, Kenji Hirasawa, Christopher Oliver, Joanna Sperryn-Jones, curated by Marek Wolynski), Unit 24, London, UK
2014/12  Camera Clara Prize Exhibition, Central Dupon Images, Paris, France
2014/10  MAC International Biennial 2014, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2014/05  184th Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland
2014/07  ‘Expansive Traces’ (curated by Eimear Redmond) Ormston House, Limerick, Ireland
2013/08  ‘Labour and Lockout’ (curated by Helen Carey, participating artists: Darek Fortas, Anthony Haughey, Mark Curran, Jesse Jones, Megs Morley & Tom Flanagan, Seamus Farrell, Deirdre Power, Sean Lynch, Deirdre O’Mahony), Limerick City Gallery of Art, Ireland
2013/03  ‘FORMAT13 Photography Festival’, The Chocolate Factory, Derby, UK
2012/10  ‘In The Black’, The Black Mariah, curated by Matt Packer & The Black Mariah, Cork, Ireland
2012/10  ‘Agents of Change: Photography and the Politics of Space’, Photobook Show, Brighton Photo Biennial, UK
2012/09  ‘Global Change Personal Stories’, 11th International Photo Festival, Aleppo, Syria
2012/07  ‘On Migration’, PhotoIreland Festival, Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin, Ireland
2011/11  RUA RED, Winter Exhibition, Dublin, Ireland
2011/09  ‘What Matters Now?’, Aperture Foundation, New York, USA

Residencies, lecturing and professional experience: 

2021/06  2023/12 - Director, Actual Perceptions, London, United Kingdom   
2021/02  Artist Residency at Four Corners as a part of London Creative Network, London, United Kingdom 2016/06 - until the present - Founder/Director, IMAGE MADE Agency, London, United Kingdom  2013/08 – Member of Panel of Experts at The Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium
2012/12  Neu/Now Festival, Visual Arts Jury Member (project by ELIA – European League of Institutes of the Arts & European Commission DG Education and Culture), Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012/10  Visiting Lecturer, Dublin Institute of Technology, Photography Dept. Dublin, Ireland
2011/06  Photo Editor, Prism Photography Magazine, Dublin, Ireland
2010/06  Photo Editor, Photo Volume, Dublin, Ireland

Selected Publications:

2016/07  British Journal of Photography, London, United Kingdom
2015/09  Irish Arts Review, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
2015/03  L’Oeil de la Photographie, Paris, France
2014/06  Limerick European City of Culture 2014 Catalogue, Limerick, Ireland
2014/05  Royal Hibernian Academy 184th Annual Exhibition Catalogue, Dublin, Ireland
2014/03  SOURCE Photographic Review, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2014/01  FOTO Magazine, text by Grazyna Siedlecka, Warsaw, Poland
2013/08  Working Times, Lockout 1913 commemoration zine, Limerick, Ireland
2012/10  Uncertain States quarterly photography newsprint publication, London, UK
2012/07  Now/Neu Festival 2012 catalogue, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2012/07  PhotoIreland Festival 2012 catalogue, Dublin, Ireland
2012/07  Prism Photography Magazine #06, Dublin, Ireland
2011/09  Irish Arts Review, Autumn Issue, Dublin, Ireland
2011/08  Source Photographic Review, Booklet with Graduate Photography 2011 Focus in Ireland, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2010/09 ‘Intimacy’ (Issue 5), SuperMassiveBlackHole Photography Magazine, Dublin Ireland
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