Welcome to Phaino

Phaino is a collection of ceramics, prints, and photographs by Irish artist Fionnuala McGowan. Her work is shaped by an intuitive relationship with material and process, a slow and thoughtful way of making that brings together her fascination with light, materiality, surface and form.

Why ‘Phaino’

The name Phaino (pronounced fay-no) comes from the Greek phainesthai, meaning to show or to come into view. It reflects Fionnuala’s enduring fascination with perception, how we interpret what we see, and how materials and images shape our sense of reality. This interest has long been informed by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which questions the space between appearance and truth.

Her time living in Athens deepened this connection. The city’s meeting of past and present, myth and material, continues to inform the tone and texture of her practice.

For Fionnuala, Phaino speaks to the act of revealing, of something slowly coming to light through making. Whether it’s a mark pulled through ink, an impression in clay, or a photograph capturing a fleeting shadow, each work invites a slower way of looking, and an awareness of what shifts in perception.

Materials and Making

Each medium within Phaino holds its own rhythm and character.

Ceramic pieces are one of a kind, often moving between the functional and the sculptural, guided by touch and intuition.
Prints are produced in small, variable editions, embracing the subtle shifts that occur within process.
Photographs are printed in limited runs, capturing the play of light, surface, and shadow.

Together, these works form a collection made slowly and attentively. Objects and images to be lived with, inviting careful attention and reflection.

About Fionnuala

Fionnuala studied Fine Art Painting and Printmaking at The Glasgow School of Art, where photography, printmaking, and sculpture first converged to form immersive, process-led works. Her practice continues to explore the meeting point between image and object, considering how surface and image shape perception and drawing the viewer into a careful observation of detail and form.

After completing a printmaking residency in Athens, Fionnuala began working more closely with clay. The city’s layered architecture, shifting light, and rich textures inspired her to think differently about how materials hold memory and presence. These experiences deepened her interest in the dialogue between the tactile and the visual, and in how objects can both record and reveal the process of making.

She now lives and works in Belfast, continuing to develop Phaino as a space for curiosity, experimentation, and transformation, exploring how ideas take form and how the act of making can reveal new ways of seeing.