CV
Born in 1970 in Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Resides and works in Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Exhibitions
2025
Beyond the Tide (solo exhibition 2-22 October), Ards Arts Centre, Newtownards, Northern Ireland
Seen/Unseen (pop-up solo exhibition), NI Group for Art as Therapy, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Half Time (group exhibition), Arcade Studios, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Seen/Unseen (solo exhibition), Belfast Exposed, Belfast, Northern Ireland
2024
Beyond the Tide (solo exhibition), The John Luke Gallery, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Change Through the Lens (group exhibition), Giant’s Causeway Visitor Centre, Northern Ireland
2023
We the Human: A Quiet Blue Wall (collaborative group exhibition), ONCA, Brighton, England
Grants/Awards
2024 & 2025
SANE Creative Award, SANE, London
2023
Support for Individual Artists Programme (emerging artist grant), Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Other
2025
Member of Belfast Photo Factory Collective
Member of Socially Engaged Photography Network
Artist Talks: Belfast Exposed’s international Healing Through Photography – Trauma & the Art of Recovery Conference, the National Autistic Society, Outside In and Northern Ireland Group for Art as Therapy
2024
Undertaking a Master of Fine Art in Photography at University of Ulster
2023
Associate Member of Visual Arts Ireland
Biography
David McKinney (born 1970, Ballymena, Northern Ireland) is a conceptual photographic artist. His work occupies the intersection between aesthetic expression and emotional enquiry to communicate psychological and ecological states of being.
Through an evolving engagement with therapeutic and eco-photographic methodologies, his images invite viewers to consider the interconnections between inner and outer landscapes.
McKinney has been awarded grants by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the SANE Creative Awards Scheme, London. As an emerging artist, since 2024 he has actively contributed to ongoing dialogues around mental well-being through his solo exhibitions Beyond the Tide, Seen/Unseen and I Belong.
Artist Statement
My practice explores the interplay between mental health and ecological consciousness through the lens of therapeutic photography in nature.
Drawing on eco-philosophy creates visual narratives that reflect emotional landscapes through embedded engagement with the more-than-human world.
Using experimental and intuitive photographic techniques, I develop abstracted and metaphorical representations of nature, weaving together lived experience with ecological observations. This approach aims to challenge anthropocentric narratives and reframe mental well-being within an ecological context.