Mary Swanzy was born in Dublin. She spent periods in Paris before the first World War and from 1920, she travelled through Eastern Europe and the Balkans and then to Hawaii and Samoa. Best known for her Cubist and Futurist paintings, Swanzy exhibited regularly at the Paris Salon des Indépendants and the Beaux Arts. By 1946 she was included in exhibitions with Chagall, William Scott and Henry Moore. The first major retrospective of Swanzy’s work was held in IMMA in 2018.