Bio

Emma O’Hara is a visual artist based in Cork City, Ireland. She graduated with a BA majoring in Printmaking in Contemporary Practice from the Limerick School of Art and Design (2016). O’Hara was awarded the Cork Printmakers 12-month Bursary (2016) where she has continued to hone & expand her visual practice. She has exhibited in numerous National and International exhibitions and he work has been collected by a number of private and public collections including the Crawford Art Gallery. Emma was also the recipient of the 2021 & 2022 Arts Council Agility award. 

O’Hara’s most recent Solo exhibition “Strangers we will stay” took place in So Fine Art editions, powers court town house, Dublin in March 2023 . Emma Recently completed a two month residency in August and September of 2022 with Rimbun Dahan Arts Centre in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia.

Artists Statement

My practice explores ideas of environmental awareness and personal ecology through boldly colourful, abstracted dreamscapes that exist outside of time and space. This multidimensional journey unfolds through the tactile embrace of paper and clay, each medium capturing my vision of lush and verdant fantasy landscapes—a testament to reverie, nostalgia, and wanderlust.

My creative odyssey carries me to dreamscapes that defy the boundaries of time and space, inviting viewers to transcend the mundane and enter a realm of vibrant abstraction. These dreamscapes are an embodiment of my exploration, pulsating with the vivid hues and potent abstract shapes that transcend mere visual aesthetics. As spontaneous mark-making dances across the surface, it serves as a poignant reminder that we are journeying landscapes of dreams and stories of lived experiences—fluid, ever-shifting spaces that bridge the eternal and the ephemeral.

I embrace the opportunity to explore scales and materials. Landscapes within vessels morph, their dimensions growing and shrinking, becoming ferociously lucid or subtly delirious. These shifts in perspective mirror the fantastical nature of the dreamscapes, serving as a conduit for personal experiences and ecological narratives.

My work lies in the incorporation of pictographs, each symbol drawn from the intimate core of my own experiences and ecological convictions. These symbols speak of personal connections to nature. They form a whispered dialogue between art and observer, beckoning a sense of responsibility toward our own natural environment. 

While my work conjures fantastical landscapes, it is not a portrayal of a specific site. Rather, it seeks to conjure the collective memory of nature—the intrinsic connection we share with the Earth. It serves as a gentle, yet profoundly poignant reminder of the delicate equilibrium of our natural world, an awakening to our obligation to protect it.  As we journey through these dreamscapes, we are urged to recognise our intricate relationship with the natural world—a world as eternal and fleeting as a dream.