Often inspired by nature and found objects, O'Connell enages with a myriad of techniques through her practice, and is continually experimenting with materials, incorporating objects like feathers, steel cord, rubber and stone into her sculpture. Touch is critical to the artist, both in the process of making her work - she has commented on feeling confronted by the colours in paintings and works on paper - but also in the finish she achieves. Urn is an exceptional example of this, with the bronze cast revealing a highly tactile and inviting surface.

Eilis O'Connell was born in Derry in 1953, and is well-known for her large-scale abstract sculpture that often embodies natural, organic forms. She studied at Crawford School of Art, Cork and Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, is a Royal Hibernian Academician, and has won awards from the British School at Rome and the Royal Society of Arts. O'Connell is also a founder director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, a former member of the Arts Council of Ireland and a member of Aosdána. In 2020, O'Connell was elected International Fellow of the Royal Society of Sculptors, London.

O’Connell represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1982 and the Sao Paolo Biennale in 1985. Her sculpture is on view publicly across the UK and Ireland, including at Lismore Castle, Ireland and Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, England. Indeed, her work is also on public view in cities including London, Cardiff, Newcastle, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Dublin, Belfast, Dundalk, Mallow and Cork.

Please contact us for more information on works by Eilis O’Connell.