Edition of 18. Moyna Flannigan studied at Edinburgh College of Art and went on to complete a Masters in Fine Art at Yale University School of Art, Connecticut in 1987. Flannigan was the Scottish Arts Council Scholar at the British School at Rome and was shortlisted for the NatWest Art Prize in 1999.
The women in Flannigan’s Femme Fatales are portraits created from the artist's imagination. Rather than depicting individuals, they represent toxic stereotypes of women and each portrait is named after a poisonous plant: belladonna (commonly known as deadly nightshade), foxglove, scarlet pimpernel, anemone and lily.
Flannigan’s work is often dark and ironic, drawing on the past to represent fictional women in a modern context. She challenges the way in which woman have traditionally been represented in art – often nude, from a male viewpoint, and for a male audience. In Flannigan’s portraits the costumes form a key part of each woman’s identity, revealing the influence of film, fashion and popular culture on her work.