Helen O’Keeffe was born in Cork and graduated from Crawford College of Art with a B.A. (Honours) in Fine Art in 2010. Her work is represented in several public collections including the Office of Public Works and Ely Lilly and she has participated in numerous group exhibitions. Her work is also represented in corporate and private collections.


Presently working on a new body of work, her previous work includes those inspired by childhood memories, retrieved from both personal and found imagery, which were used as an initial point of departure. Her concern is not necessarily the recreation of a specific image or moment, but the recreation of something informed by the act of remembering, or her emotional response to her surrounds.a Freeney graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design in 1994 and has since exhibited consistently throughout the country. Solo exhibitions of her work have been held at the Fenton Gallery, Cork 2006, Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, 2002 and at the Paul Kane Gallery, Dublin, 2001. Her work is held in collections such as the Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, the Department of Finance, the Office of Public Works, and the Dental Hospital, Dublin. Her new work represents a shift in direction, and has evolved over a period of three years. The inspiration has for the most part changed away from landscape towards urban or architectural concerns (her immediate surroundings). Although the inspiration has changed, she finds herself still drawn to the same elements - empty space, quietness, subtle colour, and tone. The works are still about the essence of places. Mood and atmosphere have always been central to her painting but exist alongside her need for a formal minimal aesthetic. Perhaps more importantly than the change in inspiration, are the formal changes - the appearance of forms, rectangular shapes, and the concentration on their placement.

 

Blessing Sanyanga

©2009 BAG