EXHIBITION | 'We Gather' with Siobhán O'Callaghan

Exhibition: Siobhán O'Callaghan

Siobhán O’Callaghan is a Dublin-based artist, invigorated by art’s capacity for storytelling, documentary and commentary, and the processes of making. Her work centres around connection in various forms – shared experiences, intimacy, how we relate to our environment. She is mindful that the environments in which we live help people make sense of their belonging in a larger culture and community. Relationships and communication take centre stage in her works and the process of their making.  

 The artist’s series of paintings and drawings is located in and around GAA grounds – sites of camaraderie, community and shared experience. The work captures relationships built and found within the frame of athletics and is a celebration of physical games. O’Callaghan offers snapshots of exaltation, defeat and closeness found in clubhouses, changing rooms and on pitches. Through the work the artist invites viewers to share in the atmosphere of togetherness.

 “I am interested in the ways people gather and are brought together. Within sporting arenas physical closeness and intimacy is often shared in an unabashed way, which I explore through this body of work.”

O’Callaghan graduated from NCAD in 2015 with First Class Honours in Fine Art & Visual Culture. She continued her training at Florence Academy of Art. Exhibitions include Alchemical Vessels, 126 Gallery (2023), RHA Annual Exhibition (2021, 2022, 2023), Utopia Dystopia, dlr Lexicon (2019), and Caoláit, Burren College of Art (2019). Her work is supported by the Arts Council and dlr Arts.