Alice Maher’s field of enquiry often reprises, subverts and expands mythic and vernacular narratives. Through her experimental use of materials, alongside her explorations of embodiment and identity, she investigates literary and folkloric subjects in a multi various artistic work that incorporates drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, and moving image. She has collaborated widely in theatre, dance, film and social activism. Her long practice has been critically recognised as one that continues to map, reflect and challenge the social and psychic histories of her country.   

Maher’s first major solo exhibition was at the Douglas Hyde Gallery Dublin in 1994. In that same year she represented Ireland at the Sao Paolo Biennial. She has had solo shows at the Brighton & Hove Museum, Purdy Hicks Gallery London, David Nolan Gallery New York, Green on Red Gallery Dublin, Crawford Gallery Cork, Butler Gallery Kilkenny, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery Dublin, The Royal Hibernian Academy, The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Golden Thread Gallery Belfast, Ljubljana City Museum, and many more.  In 2012 The Irish Museum of Modern Art presented ‘Becoming’; a retrospective of the artist’s work over the previous 30 years. Maher was elected to Aosdána, the Irish affiliation of artists, in 1996. She received an honorary Doctorate in Fine Art from the National University of Ireland in 2013.  

In 2025 Maher won the 18th edition of the Daniel & Florence Guerlain Contemporary Drawing Prize in Paris. Her work can be seen in international collections including The Neuberger Museum, The Hammond Museum, The Daniel & Florence Guerlain Foundation, The Centre Georges Pompidou, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Ulster Museum, The Fogg Museum, The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, The British Museum, and The Musée Jenisch Vevey, Switzerland.