The Minaw Collective: An All Female Force of Art
Written by John Lennon and Chris Robé
Published on June 4th, 2025
Watching Holly Pereira maneuver her way onto a construction site is a masterclass of Dublin-charm. Holly is a member of the Minaws, an all-female street art collective that formed in Dublin in 2013 when a few women who were tangentially connected to the city’s street art scene began drinking in the Bernard Shaw. The pub, whose owners didn’t care what people painted on their walls, closed years ago, and a towering building is being erected in its backyard. Walking through the construction site to see if the remnants of the murals were still there, we were stopped by a burly guy in a construction hat who wanted to go to lunch and told us to leave. Holly, though, is not someone to be deterred; she never stopped moving or talking as she equally made rude jokes about his overzealous desire for lunch while appealing to his working-class solidarity. Frankly, he was no match for her, and he knew it: defeated, he laughed and walked us through the site. Despite the pub’s closure and the gentrifying neighborhood, some murals are still there, with Holly bringing us to witness a moment of Minaw history, frozen in time.
The back garden of the Bernard Shaw.
The White Lady art gallery, which closed in 2015, also served as a central location where the Minaws met, had a bit of craic, and exhibited their work. It was in these spaces that the collective incubated to eventually become its current evolving incarnation of 14 members who live in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. They paint in local jams and international festivals, and design murals for corporate jobs as well as in support of various social movements.
The collective’s name comes from the Irish word for women, mná, but is spelled phonetically as a nod to several of its non-Irish members (mná can be found on bathroom doors in Irish pubs around the world). We interviewed a number of members over the course of two years in Northern Ireland, Ireland, and over zoom and it didn’t take long for us to recognize that the women are not only from different nations but are also completely distinctive in aesthetic styles and personalities. Somehow, though, these dissimilarities have brought them closer together as a collective.
Dublin born and bred stencil-artist Anna Doran, for example, loves geometrical patterns and bright colors, as seen in her Love Lane project that made the news when British royalty William and Kate toured the artwork behind a Temple Bar pub:
Claire Prouvost was born in a small town in France before moving to Dublin after graduating from art school and is one of the youngest members of Minaws. She prefers cubist designs and large, bold imagery:
Friz, located in Belfast but originally from County Sligo, is best known for her detailed Celtic mythic imagery, often focusing on women and animals:
Kathrina Rupit aka kinmx, is a deeply spiritual person born and raised in Mexico and whose paintings evoke a natural, organic sensibility both in colors and tone:
Harriet Tahany was born in Wales but raised in London. Her art employs a pop sensibility and playful feminine figures:
Holly is an Irish-Singaporean illustrator & muralist, who often combines her crisp lettering and bold imagery with political causes:
Two other Minaws focus on lettering. Louise Gardiner is a sign painter who learned her trade through apprenticeships traveling up and down the Island working on a variety of scales:
Vanessa Power paints bold signs with clean, sharp lines and a flair for bold colors:
The women make the collective work because they center it around one main idea: friendship. Such solidarity is important as street art has become one of the building blocks for the creative economy in many cities throughout the world and requires decoding a complex web of practices in making a profession from it. Government grants and sponsorships can be bureaucratic traps with no guarantee of funding while festivals are often prohibitory expensive. Corporate jobs can be lucrative, but they are often given on an individual’s “brand” appeal and social media presence. Some employers attempt to pit artists against one another in efforts for them to underbid each other for a job.
The Minaws, however, have found a way to exist within this moment by using their friendship as a foundation to find work and opportunities by cooperating with each other. Such cooperation is extremely practical at times. As every Minaw discussed with us, finding a bathroom as a woman when painting on the street can be a complicated ordeal, something that most men never think about. Likewise, street art scenes can be overwhelmingly male. Having a group of supportive women specifically creates a safe space where practical information can be shared. The Minaws assist each other through an active WhatsApp group in determining pricing for their artwork, assessing festivals and corporate jobs, and sharing technical information like the best steel-toe boots that fit women along with the type of spray caps and paint to be used for certain jobs. They also use this space to offer encouragement. Time and again, the Minaws mentioned the collaborative rather than competitive nature of the group.
The Minaws have chosen to resist competitive impulses through solidarity and offer a distinct pathway in navigating the creative economy that often preys on individual artists or makes them dependent on middle-managers.
The Minaws have chosen to resist competitive impulses through solidarity and offer a distinct pathway in navigating the creative economy that often preys on individual artists or makes them dependent on middle-managers. They have built their growing collective among skilled artists who prioritize relationships and mutual aid rather than individualistic opportunisms by freely sharing knowledge, advice, and empathy. They are artists with their own distinct brands and creative identities, but they grow as individual artists through cooperation. The structure of friendly collaboration, first formed over drinks and paint in the Bernard Shaw but continues to this day online and through occasional meet ups, is quite simple. But their focus on solidarity rather than competition may offer a way forward for others who are looking for a community as they paint their own cities.
Written by John Lennon and Chris Robé