Maria O' Sullivan BiographyView Prints

Maria O’ Sullivan was born in Cobh, Co Cork Ireland in 1990. After completing a one year Art and Design Course in St. John’s College Cork, Maria went on to graduate with an Honours degree in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art and Design in June 2014. From the Degree Show she was selected to exhibit in Joan Clancy Gallery where received special mention by Irish Times Art Critic Aidan Dunne, and Peter Murray of the Irish Examiner. She was also invited to participate in the Annual Fledglings Exhibition in the Lavit Gallery Cork and in the Emerging Artist Exhibition in St. Patrick’s Hospital Dublin. Her work forms part of the CIT Civic Collection.

Maria’s practice engages with the constant development within the urban environment.  Often working on large scale to emphasise the overwhelming sense of space, Maria uses many layers of different media and gestural mark-making to echo our densely complex and chaotic world.

Her work is continually changing and evolving generating a sense of energy that reflects our contemporary cities, using mainly collage, photo-shop, paint, ink, charcoal and graphite.

Through the work she aims to explore the relationships between built environments and the people and systems that inhabit them.

Her main interests are in constructivism, futurism, contemporary and historical social networks, complex patterns and mark-making.

Maria's work is represented by Agora Gallery, Chelsea NYC

 

Current Project

Maria is currently based in Venice where she was awarded a three-month residency with the ScuolaInternazionale di Grafica. She is focused on creating a new body of work which will discuss the uncertainty and indecision in life that ultimately leads us down different paths. This body of work will deal with the ambiguity of what has been and what is to come. She believes that in life people find themselves at certain crossroads, points of contemplation, and it is their resolutions in these situations that determines their individual existence and evolution. Her work is a complete reflection of her own personality, where each line is a record of her own state of mind, indecision, progression and intersecting thoughts: It is in a constant state of change.

Education

 

2014              BA (Honors) degree in Fine Art          Crawford College Cork.

2010 Art, Crafts and Design                          St. John’s College Cork.

2009        Leaving certificate Bruce College Cork.

 

Core competencies

 

·         Photoshop workshop

·         Powerpoint Presentation

·         Print making course

·         Sketchbook workshop

·         Life Drawing course

 

Art Exhibitions

 

2015         ‘Portals of Perception’                                                              Agora Gallery, Chelsea NYC

2014          Group Exhibition                                                                       The Doorway Gallery, Dublin

2014         Emerging Artist Exhibition    St. Patrick’s University Hospital, Dublin

2014Annual Fledglings Exhibition    Lavit Gallery, Cork

2014         ‘Cache of the seas’ Joan Clancy Summer Exhibition.         AnRinn, Dungarvan.

2014         ‘Na hOibreacha’ CCAD Degree Show           Crawford College, Cork

2013         ‘Are we there yet?‘Half Moon Street, Cork.

 

Awards

 

CIT Purchase Prize

Joan Clancy Summer Exhibition Award

 

Collections

The CIT collection

 

Residencies

 

ScuolaInternazionale di Grafica, Venice Italy (1 November,2014- 31 January, 2015)

 

Publications

 

Murray, Peter: “Among those names stand out are…Maria Catherine O’ Sullivan”,Irish Examiner;  ‘Na hOibreacha’ Art Review, 11 June, 2014

Dunne, Aidan: “Maria O’ Sullivan’s seething, crowded cityscapes are Strong”, Irish Times; 21 June, 2014