MART Gallery & Studios – Providing Creative Platforms
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Margaret O’Brien is a visual artist based between the U.K. and Ireland. She works with immersive installation – combinations of sculpture, live sound, light, moving image and kinetics. Her approach to materials is experimental, producing works that often operate within a live state of malfunction or breakdown. The precarious nature of these works explores parameters of failure, emotion, and mental health as everyday experiences. These concepts are addressed through feelings of uncertainty, unease, discomfort, and instability prompted by the work.
O’Brien has won significant public funding for her work from state bodies such as the Arts Council of Ireland; Irish Research Council; Arts and Humanities Research Board UK; University College London; Dublin City Councils and Trinity College Dublin. She has completed numerous international artist residencies including the Irish Museum of Modern Art; Helsinki International Artist Program; Centre Culturel Irlandais, Paris; Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin; and Fire Station Artist Studios, Dublin. Her work is held in public collections including the Arts Council of Ireland; Allied Irish Bank; GE Aviation; and AXA Insurance. O’Brien received BA in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art, and MFA from Slade School of Art, London. She has completed an MPhil and PhD at Trinity College Dublin. She is currently a lecturer in fine art at National College of Art & Design, Dublin.
