Elected an Associate Member of the RCA IN 2023
Through layered narratives and symbolic figuration, Welsh artist Meinir Mathias explores the intersection of place, identity, and collective memory. Her paintings inhabit a poetic space between the personal and the mythic, where the past continually resurfaces in the present. Working primarily in oil and intaglio printmaking, her practice merges history and imagination to reflect on belonging, resilience, and the human condition.
Her characters , drawn from memory, folklore, and lived experience , inhabit both real and dreamlike spaces, reinterpreting the feminine and the heroic within contemporary contexts. Rooted in the land and language of Wales, her work resonates universally through its exploration of transformation, inheritance, and emotional truth.
A graduate of BA and MA Fine Art and a former lecturer at Carmarthen School of Art, Meinir now works full-time from her studio in Ceredigion, West Wales. Since her acclaimed debut solo exhibition Rebel in 2020, her work has been shown widely across Wales and internationally , including Wales Contemporary at the Waterfront Gallery, Oriel Myrddin, Ffin y Parc Gallery, RCA Conwy, Oriel Mimosa, Galeri Canfas, and Oriel Plas Glyn y Weddw.
In 2024 she held a major solo exhibition at the Palais des Congrès in Lorient, France, during the Festival Interceltique, and most recently presented a collection of female portraits at the Senedd , National Assembly of Wales, Cardiff. Her paintings are represented in the National Collection at the National Library of Wales, and she received the People’s Choice Award at the Royal Cambrian Academy of Fine Arts.
Her work has also been featured on S4C’s Cymry ar Gynfas / Wales on Canvas, where she was commissioned to paint naturalist and broadcaster Iolo Williams, and she has collaborated with award-winning poet Menna Elfyn to re-interpret a collection of her poems through visual art.
Described by The Western Mail as “multi-layered imagery drawing from the heart of Wales’s land and history,” Meinir’s work continues to evolve ,reimagining the traces of myth, memory, and the human story for a contemporary world.
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