Tina O'Connell was born in Limerick, Ireland and lives and works in London. After finishing her MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art in 1988, London, she studied for another postgraduate degree in Marseilles, France (1988-1989).  In the following year she was awarded The Henry Moore Fellowship in Sculpture from Winchester School of Art and subsequently completed residencies at: La Friche Belle de Mai in Marseilles (1996); 18th St. Arts Complex in Los Angeles in 1998 and IMMA in Ireland the next year.

O’Connell’s work is concerned with the particularities of the sculptural medium. The formal qualities of her abstract pieces come to the fore in works that are tactile and ‘in process’ during the exhibition. One example of this would be In Dublin from 1999, a work where a tonne of bitumen proceeded to sink slowly through a hole in the first floor of a pub into the bar below. Different materials and processes are employed from acrylic to cling film and in each case appear to provide a conceptual focus for the work as a whole.

Her solo exhibitions have taken place at the Project Arts Centre, Dublin, 1995; Kunstbunka, Munich, also 1995; Spacex Gallery, Exeter, 1997; College des Irelandais, Paris, 2002; Limerick City Gallery in 2004; The Jerwood Gallery in London, also 2004; and the Transformer Gallery in Washington in 2012.

She received Lorne Scholarship from UCL in 2005 and an Irish Arts Council One Off Project Award in 2007. Recent commissions include a public art commission for Washington DC Arts and Humanities Gallery in 2012 and one for the TULCA Contemporary Arts Festival in Galway, Ireland (2013).

Glossary

  • Acrylic

    Modern synthetic paint that combines some of the properties of oils and watercolour. Most are water-based, although some are oil compatible, using turpentine as a thinner. When it became available to artists in America around 1936 it was the first new painting medium in centuries and has become a serious rival to oil paint because of its versatility. Acrylic paints can be used on nearly any surface. The water-based nature of acrylic paint allows for easy application and rapid drying time: acrylic paint dries in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the many months required for oil-based paints. Once the paint has been applied to a surface, the water evaporates, leaving behind the synthetic resin (and pigment), which is no longer water-soluble. Visually, acrylic-based paints can appear to be very similar to oil-based paints, but they cannot rival the rich, translucent nature of oils.

  • Contemporary

    Existing or coming into being at the same period; of today or of the present. The term that designates art being made today.

  • Film

    A transparent, flexible plastic material, usually of cellulose acetate or polyester, on which light-sensitive emulsion is coated, or on which an image can be formed by various transfer processes.

  • Medium

    Refers to either the material used to create a work of art, craft or design, i.e. oil, bronze, earthenware, silk; or the technique employed i.e. collage, etching, carving. In painting the medium refers to the binder for the pigment, e.g. oil, egg, acrylic dispersion. The plural form is media.

  • Sculpture

    A three-dimensional work of art. Such works may be carved, modelled, constructed, or cast. Sculptures can also be described as assemblage, in the round, relief, and made in a huge variety of media. Contemporary practice also includes live elements, as in Gilbert & George 'Living Sculpture' as well as broadcast work, radio or sound sculpture.

Portfolio