The RDS Student Art Awards is a nationwide competition, which is open to Students specialising in the area of Fine Art and Design. Each year selected students partake in an exhibition, which takes place at the RDS in Dublin, and from these a number of applicants are selected for awards based upon the merits of their work.

The Model Niland Residency Award is the first of its kind to be included as part of the RDS Student Art Awards and consists of a one month residency at the Model in Sligo with the provision of a studio, living space and subsidy towards material and work costs. The residency is to take place during the month of February 2013.

Ian Nolan graduated with a 1st Class Hons BFA from the National College of Art and Design in 2012 with a commendation for his original thesis “Outside of a Dog: A Phenomenological Perspective of the Built Environment”. His work deals specifically with the relationship between the individual and their environment and incorporates a wide variety of processes and mediums including external sculpture, installation, video performance and intervention. He has partaken in exhibitions in both the Netherlands and Ireland and has since been practicing and exhibiting as an artist in Dublin city and is co-director of the artists project group ArtHouse..

Nolan says of his work,

‘’ Inspired by the notion of habitat, where relations, being and consequence come to the fore, my work contends with the manner in which we, as conscious beings attempt to forge our relationships to and perceptions of the places and environments we inhabit and to what extent these experiences are constructed for us collectively through language, community, history and thought.’’