Éamon McGivern

Éamon McGivern (b.1990) is an artist from San Francisco who has spent the past seven years in the Bay Area painting portraits of queers, punks and poets. More recently, he has been delving into the archives of 20th century LGBTQ history, picking up strands from holes in the historical narratives in attempts to darn the tears between the past and present wrought by political oppression, transphobia and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. His work feels into the sorrow born from the absence of the queer and trans people who would have been the teachers, mentors, parents and grandparents of his generation and the effect their deaths have on contemporary life.

Éamon holds a BFA with honors in Painting from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY and an MA in Fine Arts from the Chelsea College, London, U.K. Since returning home to San Francisco from London in 2016, Éamon has immersed himself in the vibrant DIY art culture of the Bay Area. He are a two time recipient of the San Francisco Arts Commission’s Individual Artists Grant, a former artist in residence at Residency 11:11 in London, U.K. and has had his art displayed across the Bay Area from the Tenderloin Museum, The Exploratorium, The DeYoung Open, a variety of artist run spaces and galleries, as well as coffee shops and bookstores.