As a result of new technology systems we are now more connected then ever before. The internet continues ever-rapidly to evolve and shape the world we live in. This can be seen within the relationships created and maintained through our phones, as well as in the relationships that we have with our communication devices in themselves. This has impacted upon one of life's most important assets; the time to pause, embrace silence, listen, reflect, and engage in meaningful conversation.

Louise Peat's current body of work examines how the development of the online social world is affecting identity and social behaviour. She focuses on communication and specially alludes to the way people today keep in touch by interacting through a screen - via social media and internet networks trying to perpetuate social bonds, relations and intimacy. The artist believes simultaneously there is a disconnect occurring, and that what is missing with most forms of modern communication is emotional exchange. She expressly asks - are we losing meaningful connection within the process?

Louise's practice is characterised by an innovative approach to processes, methodologies and media. She employs multiple approaches and strategies in her art practice and is open to an investigation through painting, drawing, print, installation, sound, and digital to create and inform her work. The work includes computer-generated drawings constructed in virtual spaces, scanned paintings and screen shots, which she makes physical through the medium of printingmaking.

Peat is interested in the production of virtual archives on personal devices that are saved in digital folders and unlikely to ever be made tangible. In Peat's current body of work she has mined her own virtual archives, transforming them into a tactile print series. The digital print then is worked on with traditional printing mediums including emboss and screen print, in a process of slow accrual. The final pieces are hybrid blends of digital and traditional image-generating methods by the artist.

Louise Peat was born in Dublin where she lives and works. She studied Fine Art at DIT, College of Marketing and Design, where she received an honours Diploma in Painting in 1993, and was conferred a Master in Fine Art in Painting from NCAD in 2011. She is currently on the teaching panel and has previously served on the Board at the Black Church Print Studio where she has been a member since 1990. Louise has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and received EVA Award in 1998 and in 2000 she won the Douglas Hyde Gold Medal and Arts Council Award for painting. Her work is held in many public and private collections.