ARTIST Mary O’Connor

A Visual Painter and Printmaker, member of Black Church Print Studio, Mary has been selected for group exhibitions including the RHA Annual Exhibition, RUA Annual Exhibition and Cairde.  Her work is included in many public and private collections.  She has completed a commission for wall murals in Capitol Dock, Dublin.  She participated in OVER NATURE, a touring exhibition, and was recipient of the Galway County Council Purchase prize, Impressions Biennale 2019. Most recently was commissioned for DLR Artworks Home, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.  Her first Solo Exhibition in Dublin, KEEL has just finished at So Fine Art Editions Gallery.

Mary is a Visual artist living in Dun Laoghaire, Dublin. Born in Wexford She studied visual communication and 3D design at TU in Dublin, and painting at Chelsea College of Art, London, and in New Zealand. She also lived in Belize and Kazakhstan, a place of vast landscapes and infinite white winters; during her time there (eleven years) she published two books of photojournalism on Central Asia.  She repatriated to Dublin in 2014.

Mary has been selected for many group exhibitions including the RHA Annual Exhibition, RUA Annual Exhibition, Impressions Galway and Cairde, The Model Sligo. A member of Black Church Print Studio. She has also been commissioned to carry out large-scale wall murals in Capitol Dock, Dublin.

Mural, Capital Dock Dublin, 2019

Mary’s paintings and prints are influenced by her surrounding.  The vast landscapes encountered on her travels are conveyed through shapes, space and colours that emerge as non-representational abstract compositions.  Cultures, travel, time, memory and flux are essential elements in her work.

Keel

Keel is an exhibition by Mary O’Connor where she explores the roots that gave rise to one of the most important elements of her practice – colour. Influenced by two worlds, diametrically opposed to each other on the globe. New Zealand and Ireland.

Initiated into one and matured into the other her Visual Art practice is a marriage of both worlds. The Keel symbolically acts as the central element connecting both of these realities now merging as one. The paintings and prints in this exhibition exploit numerous possibilities summed up following a recent visit to New Zealand, and are conveyed through shape, space, colour and gestural mark making that emerge as non-representational abstract compositions.

Antipodes : Balance : Ballast : Central : Cloud : Colour : Currents : Deep : Depth Diametric : Draft : Drift : Drop : Fall : Fixed : Floating : Grounding : Hemisphere Hidden : Lean Linier : Movement : Mystery : Northern : Ocean : Opposites : Passage Polar : Port : Pressure Reverse : Righting : Ripple : Rise : Silence : Sonar Southern : Stability : Starboard : Swing : Tilt : Underside : Wave

Sonar-IV-50cm-H-x-70cm-Mary-OConnor-Limited-edition-silk-screen-print-scaled

‘Sonar-IV’, Silk Screen Print, 2020

ARTWORKS BYMary O’Connor

ARTIST’S Accolades

Residencies & Awards

  • Recipient of the Galway County Council Purchase prize, Impressions Biennale 2019.
  • Commissioned for DLR Artworks Home, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.
  • Commissioned for DLR Artworks Home, supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.
  • Resident of Black Church Print Studio.
  • Commissioned to paint 4 large scale wall murals, Capitol Dock, Dublin
  • Bronze award– Colour.  Irish Times Amateur Photographer of the year award
  • Graduated from DIT – Higher Diploma (Hons) in Environmental Design
  • Awarded entry into Kilkenny Design Residency Butler House Scheme for Young Designers upon leaving College

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions:

  •  KEEL at SO Fine Art Editions in Powerscourt Town House Centre, August 22 2020. 

 

Group Exhibitions:

  • RHA Annual Exhibition
  • RUA Annual Exhibition
  • CAIRDE Visual, The Model Sligo,
  • OVER NATURE, Touring group exhibition, Curated by Valerie Ceregini

– Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, Limavady

-The Crypt, Sample Studios, Cork

-OPW, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin

-Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny

-The Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon

-The Luan Gallery, Athlone

  • Utopia Dystopia DLR Open submission
  • VUE
  • Discover Print, Greenacres Gallery, Wexford
  • Halftone,
  • So Fine Art Editions summer show
  • So Fine Art Editions Winter Show
  • Artform Summer Exhibition
  • Art=430-790THz, WFO
  • Impressions Biennale, Galway
  • #44 The Quay, Waterford
  • INPRINT BCPS Members show at Greenacres Gallery
  • ‘Unframed’ Pier printers, Film base, Temple Bar
  • Greenacres, Wexford Festival Opera Exhibition
  • Printmakers Gallery Dublin
  • INCOGNITO – Jack and Jill Foundation, first artwork out of 1500 purchased
  • Boyle, Arts Week
  • An tOireachteas
  • Dublin Art Book Fair Temple Bar Galleries, Dublin
  • ‘Three Visions’, Wexford Arts Centre
  • Kelly’s Hotel Wexford Festival Opera Exhibition
  • Art @ Wexford Vocational College, Wexford Festival Opera
  • The Dye house Gallery, Summer Show

Collections

  • The Office of Public Works
  • The Environmental Protection Agency
  • Devlin Hotel, Ranelagh
  • Wexford County Council Collection
  • Galway County Council Collection
  • Beat FM, Waterford
  • Holles St. Hospital Collection
  • CITI
  • Grolsh
  • VEC College, Wexford
  • Ferrycarrick Hotel, Wexford
Follow Artist online: