ABOUT 

Artist Statement
​
I am an independent visual artist and researcher with a studio in The Model Arts Gallery in Sligo since 2015. My practice and research centres on drawing in the expanded field and across art and philosophy to examine the perceptual and aesthetic experience of drawing both inside and outside the gallery space. This practice is realised through studio and site-specific drawing, digital media, installation, sculpture and photography. 

I am interested in the deep ontological and reciprocal relationship between the subjects [drawer and viewer] and the drawing as an ‘aesthetic’ object. By modifying manmade and natural materials using a variety of drawing processes, my work attempts to create a ‘Holding Space’ in which wonder may arise.  Taking a Heideggarian position, the drawings can suspend the viewers attention and reawaken the artist and the viewers everyday experiences of the world so that we become aware of ourselves as beings. My practice draws from lived experience to make meaningful connections that arise between the aesthetic experience of the drawing, the site and the viewer. 

NEWS

2019

FINALIST (one of nine) for MY project, Drawing Wonder for Project Anywhere 2019/2020. Project Anywhere is a global blind peer reviewed exhibition program dedicated to art and artistic research at the outermost limits of location-specificity.
i fulfilled the rigorous evaluation process which was comprehensively reviewed by four artist academics from the Centre of Visual Art (University of Melbourne, Australia) and Parsons Fine Art (Parsons School of Design, The New School). i WILL PRESENT MY project at our biennial conference at Parsons Fine Art in 2020 AND i will also contribute to our innovative biennial publication Anywhere.
https://www.projectanywhere.net​

invited by curator and researcher Rosy Naylor to Site Specific-Drawing, Art Walk Party, Edinburgh Scotland

INVITED BY  curatOR / ARTIST by Dr. Annemarie Murland FOR INTERNATIONAL GROUP EXHIBITION TITLED RE-IMAGINING THE CANON, NSW, Australia;

book chapter titled ‘Drawing from the Non-Place’, in book Body, Space, Place in Collective and Collaborative Drawing: Drawing Conversations II. eds. H. Gorill, J. Journeaux, published by Cambridge Scholars, 2019

2020
​
iNVITED BY CURATOR Arno Kramer FOR INTERNATIONAL GROUP EXHIBITION TITLED Beyond Drawing at Ballina Arts Centre, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Courthouse Gallery in EnnistymON

biography
​
GRADUATED FROM DIT (BA FINE ART), (2000) AND  A MPHIL (FINE ART, RESEARCH) IN NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY, AUSTRALIA, (2013). 

DRAWING WONDER: EXAMINING WHETHER DRAWING CAN INDUCE A SENSE OF WONDER THROUGH PRACTICE-BASED RESEARCH

DRAWING DECENTERED: co-founder for an ONLINE PLATFORM IN COLLABORATION WITH FIVE PROFESSIONAL IRISH ARTISTS/ACADEMICS TO TEST AND EXPERIMENT THE PARAMETERS OF CONTEMPORARY DRAWING PRACTICES IN IRELAND

CDP: COOLANEY DRAWING PROJECT. CURATOR AND LEAD ARTIST WITH LOCAL RESIDENTS FROM THE VILLAGE OF COOLANEY IN CO. SLIGO. THE AIM OF THE GROUP IS TO EXPLORE LOCAL SOCIAL HISTORIES AND MATERIAL CULTURE THROUGH DRAWING, PERFORMANCE DRAWING AND EXPANDED FIELD OF DRAWING TO ALTER HOW LOCAL RESIDENTS VIEW THEIR SURROUNDINGS. 

COLLABORATIONS:ONGOING COLLABORATION FOR PAST FIVE YEARS WITH DR ANNEMARIE MURLAND (AUSTRALIA). DEVELOPING COLLABORATION WITH ARTIST AND LECTURER GREG BURGOYNE UK), EIMEAR MULVEY, NATIONAL SEAN NOS DANCER 2018.

RECENT EXHIBITIONS | THE MODEL, SLIGO, 2017, DAMER HOUSE GALLERY, LIMERICK, CATALYST ARTS, BELFAST, CENTRE FOR CREATIVE PRACTICES, DUBLIN (2016/2017) , MUNICIPAL GALLERY DLR LEXICON, DUBLIN (2016), THE WATERWAYS IRELAND, ENNISKILLEN (2016)
.
RECENT RESIDENCIES| LEITRIM SCULPTURE CENTRE, 2017, CENTRE FOR CREATIVE PRACTICES, 2017, TINAHELY COURTHOUSE ARTS CENTRE, (2015) AND RYSS, NSW, AUSTRALIA FUNDED BY NSW ARTS COUNCIL ( 2013, 2011, 2010) 
​
RECENT PRESENTATIONS| PANELLIST |ARTIST TALKS 'DRAWING AS WONDER' HUNT MUSUEM, LIMERICK (2018), ARTS IN EDUCATION NATIONAL DAY, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND (2018), 'DRAWING CONVERSATIONS 2', COVENTRY UNIVERSITY, (2017), VISUAL ARTS IRELAND, 'GET TOGETHER' (2017), 'NEW PERSPECTIVES ON DRAWING' FOR BART LODEWIJKS’ EXHIBITION IN THE MODEL, SLIGO (2016), THE 20TH AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE FOR IRISH STUDIES IN UNIVERSITY OF NSW, AUSTRALIA AND IN THE NOT JUST NED: THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE IRISH IN AUSTRALIA AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AUSTRALIA

COLLECTIONS | PUBLIC: OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS, IRELAND, WICKLOW COUNTY COUNCIL, LISSADELL HOUSE ART COLLECTION, MAITLAND REGIONAL GALLERY, NSW AUSTRALIA, MERCURE HOTELS, NSW AUSTRALIA. PRIVATE COLLECTIONS ARE IN IRELAND, AUSTRALIA, UK AND USA
​

newsletter- studio  

CONTACT

​
phone            
+353 (0)89 2270825

EMAIL            
kieraotooleartist@gmail.com

instagram        https://www.instagram.com/opw_office_of_public_wonder/ 

FACEBOOK       
https://www.facebook.com/kiera.otoole

Drawing deCentred  
http://drawingdecentred.com

CDP ooOlaney Drawing Project     ​https://www.facebook.com/coolaneydrawingproject/

​Studio - The Model Sligo, Ireland 2016- present

---

​Studio - The University of Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 2013

---

STUDIO - nARARA, NSW, Australia 2013-4

---

​STUDIO - lISSADELL hoUSE, sLIGO, iRELAND 2015

---

---