Helen O'Leary

Helen O'Leary
Born1961 (age 62–63)
County Wexford, Ireland
NationalityIrish
EducationSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, National College of Art and Design
Known forPainting, sculpture
StyleAbstract, assemblage
AwardsJohn Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, American Academy in Rome Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Foundation
WebsiteHelen O'Leary

Helen O'Leary (born 1961) is an Irish-born artist based in the United States and Ireland, known for constructions that blur the boundaries between painting and sculpture and object and image.[1][2] She uses bricolage and handicraft approaches to refashion older works, studio castoffs and diverse materials into abstract pieces that explore materials, language, remnants of the past, and the visual, cultural and emotional influences of origin.[3] She has exhibited internationally, including shows at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA),[4] Metropolitan Arts Centre (MAC) (Belfast),[3] American Academy of Arts and Letters,[5] SFMOMA,[6] the Sanskriti Foundation (New Delhi), Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne), and Centre Culturel Irlandais (Paris).[7][8] Her work has been recognized by the American Academy in Rome[9] and John S. Guggenheim,[8] Pollock-Krasner and Joan Mitchell foundations,[10] numerous residencies,[11][7] and reviews in The Times (UK),[12] The New York Times,[13] Chicago Tribune,[14] The Irish Times,[15] and Arts Magazine,[16] among others.

Helen O'Leary, Delicate Negotiations, clay, egg tempera on constructed wood, 56" x 48", 2015.

Irish Times art critic Aidan Dunne writes of her constructions: "O'Leary dismantles painting and then rebuilds it from scratch [...] The works have a fragility, an exploratory delicacy, but also appear curiously durable and timeless."[17] David Roth calls her work a form of self-appropriation rooted in the "DIY ethos" of her forebears, which demonstrates "how cultural traditions, removed from their original contexts, can be used as emotional anchors in others."[18] O'Leary lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey and County Leitrim, Ireland, and is a professor at the School of Visual Arts at Penn State University, where she has taught since 1991.[19][20]

  1. ^ Pilkington, Alison. "Texture of a Medium," The Visual Artists' News Sheet, September–October 2017. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  2. ^ Hill, Robin. "Assembled but not resembling, at Patricia Sweetow," Two Coats of Paint, October 29, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  3. ^ a b Metropolitan Arts Centre, Belfast. "Helen O'Leary: The Shelf Life of Facts," Exhibition materials. 2016.
  4. ^ McCormick, Penny. "Artistic License: Hennessy Art Fund for IMMA," The Gloss, May 30, 2018. Retrieved April 2, 2019.
  5. ^ Panero, James. "Gallery chronicle," The New Criterion, April 2017, p. 68–70.
  6. ^ Roth, David. "Irish Artists @ SFMOMA Artists Gallery," Squarecylinder.com, March 25, 2012. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  7. ^ a b Irish Museum of Modern Art. "Helen O'Leary," Artists. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  8. ^ a b John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. "Helen O'Leary," Fellows, 2010. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  9. ^ Artforum. "American Academy in Rome Announces 2018–19 Fellows," Artforum, April 13, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  10. ^ Joan Mitchell Foundation. Helen O'Leary, Artist Grants, 1999. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  11. ^ Yaddo. Visual Artists Archived 14 June 2021 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  12. ^ O'Sullivan, John P. "Helen O'Leary: Irregular Activity," The Sunday Times, August 4, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  13. ^ Cotter, Holland. Review, The New York Times, April 26, 2018.
  14. ^ Artner, Alan G. "Sensitive Debut," Chicago Tribune, August 23, 1990.
  15. ^ Dunne, Aidan. "Art in focus: Untitled (2018) by Helen O'Leary," The Irish Times, September 29, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  16. ^ Hixson, Kathryn. Review, Arts Magazine, February 1992.
  17. ^ Dunne, Aidan. "The importance of interaction, and idleness," The Irish Times, October 9, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  18. ^ Roth, David. "Assembled at Patricia Sweetow," Squarecylinder.com, November 2, 2018. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Burns19 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Penn State University. "Brantley, dePamphilis, Huang, Kroll, O'Leary receive Faculty Scholar Medals,". Penn State News, March 21, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2019.