Rachel Joynt grew up in Dublin and currently lives and works in the Blackstairs Mountains, Co. Carlow. She was elected a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 2005 and a member of Aosdána in 2021. She regularly exhibits at the Solomon Gallery and at the RHA Annual Exhibition. In 2013, the RHA Ashford Gallery hosted her solo show.

Many of Rachel’s large public artworks are highly visible, such as Mothership on the Dún Laoghaire seafront, Noah’s Egg at UCD and Guiding Star at Port Oriel, Clogherhead. In 2016, Rachel was awarded a major public artwork for Áras an Uachtaráin to commemorate the 1916 Rising: Dearcán na nDaoine/The People’s Acorn. Her commission Keepsake – inspired by the native Irish strawberry tree – was unveiled in 2019 in Lansdowne Place, Dublin at the former location of Trinity College Botanical Gardens.

Rachel is currently working on a large sculpture, Síol/Seed, for Glencar House on Merrion Road, Dublin, having recently completed a commission, ÉIST/Listen, for an east Cork school. She featured as a guest artist on RTÉ’s The Works with John Kelly in 2021. Rachel has said: ‘For me, a successful public artwork needs to have a sense of place, a freshness, some intrigue and playfulness, a bit like a frozen moment from a daydream.’