Mentor: Eamon O’Kane

Artist statement 

My multi-disciplinary practice explores architecture and design history as well contemporary social issues such as sustainability and climate change.I have consistently been drawn to architectural contexts, whether in my Fröbel Studio installation works that explore environments of play, or else in artworks such as Glass House that presented a scaled model of Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House which was exhibited at California 101 in San Francisco and then at my first museum solo exhibition to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sheldon Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska. The multi-layering of histories is key to my artwork and espouses the idea of history being a highly contingent construct and thereby critiquing ‘the artifice of representation’. I tease out the complexities inherent in the construction of history to form a subtle interrogation of the belief systems and political mind-sets subsequently formed in society.  

Areas of expertise

Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Installation, Relational art and Socially engaged practice, Artist’s books, Environmental art, Video, Photography, Public art 

Spoken Languages

English, Danish (and Norwegian/Swedish) 

Biography 

Eamon O’Kane (born 1974, Belfast, Northern Ireland) explores the ideological tropes and visual forms of modernist architecture in his paintings and immersive sculptural installations.

He received his B.A. in the History of Art and Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland in 1996 and went on to earn his M.F.A. at the University of Ulster, Belfast in 1998 and later an additional M.F.A. in Design Technology at Parsons School of Design, New York in 2001.

O’Kane has exhibited internationally, and recent solo exhibitions include The Model Arts Centre, Sligo, Ireland (2022); Galerie DGV, Svendborg, Denmark (2022); Galerie Andres Thalmann, Zuirch, Switzerland (2020); Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany (2019); Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork, Ireland (2019); and Gregory Lind Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA (2019).

His work is held in the public collections of Burda Museum, Baden Baden, Germany; Lentos Art Museum, Linz, Austria; Museum of Fine Arts, Brest, France; META/Facebook, Dublin and The Arts Council Collection, Ireland.

Recently he has been awarded Norwegian Arts Council Grant (2020) and the EV+A Biennial Award (2005) and previously a Fulbright Award, Pollock Krasner Foundation Award, and Taylor Art Award.  

His monographs include And Time Begins Again (University of Bergen, 2018), Hybrids (Academy of Art and Design, Norway, 2013), and Case Histories (ArtSway and Rugby Art Museum, UK, 2009).

He currently lives and works in Odense, Denmark and is Professor of Painting at The Art Academy, University of Bergen, Norway. 

Qualifications 

2015 (ongoing) Professor of Painting, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Bergen, Norway. 

2015           Dean of Art Department, Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Bergen, Norway. 

2012-2015   Artistic Research Leader (KU Leder) Bergen Academy of Art and Design, Bergen, Norway. 

2011-          Professor of Visual Art, Bergen National Academy of Art, Bergen, Norway. 

2007-2010   Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. 

2001-2007   Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK. 

2000-2001   Assistant Lecturer, Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland. 

2001           MFA (Design Technology), Parsons School of Design, New School University, New York, USA. 

1998-1999   Research Fellowship (Painting), Cheltenham & Gloucester College of Higher Education, UK. 

1998           Master of Fine Art Degree (with Distinction), University of Ulster, Belfast. 

1996           B.A. Joint Honours Degree in History of Art and Fine Art Painting, (First Class Honours), NCAD, Dublin.