Dig the new breed: Alexandra McGuinness, visual artist

Daughter of U2 manager Paul, Alexandra McGuinness made her mark last summer with an exceptional and highly praised Arthouse installation entitled My Wife The Cockroach And Other Stories. The exhibit, which included altered and refurbished second hand wedding dresses as well as paintings, took its title from one bridal gown that was painted with lead and accessorized with a cockroach hat.

A chance visit to Oxfam provided the inspiration and the materials for the exhibition, for which she was assisted by Gordon Campbell, founder of The Academy Of Everything Is Possible. "I was going from a sort of Pop Art thing," she explains, "I thought everyone could look at it and take something away." She was right. Alexandra may still be in her teens but there is no doubting either the originality of her imagination or the craft with which her work is realised.

In September 2002, Alexandra plans an exhibition of paintings that are likely, predominantly to feature images of gravestone angels. "It’s kind of haunting," she says of the latter, "I think the past is present in everything." Or, as Utah Philips has it, the past didn’t go anywhere.

Alexandra is also collaborating with designer Ali Malek (see profile) on seven pieces for a New York shop called Seven, using the unlikely alloy of urine and fabric.