EDUCATION

MA (Research) – Crawford College of Art and Design, Cork. 2008  

BA (Hon’s) 3D Design (Metal/ Glass)  – Middlesex University, London, U.K.  1994

SELECTED AWARDS

2020: Centre Culturel Irlandais & DCCI Residency, Paris, France.  

Prize2019: Golden Fleece Award.

2009, ’10 & ’19, Culture Ireland Award – (Travel and Dissemination)

2010, ’11, ’17: Golden Fleece Award – Merit Prize

2010: Business to Arts Awards: Commissioned Artist.

2009 & ’10: RDS First Prize Contemporary Ceramics

2009: Ceramics Ireland Award – RDS

2009: National Museum of Ireland/DCCI Purchase Award

2008: Irish Arts Review & DCCI Inaugural Emerging Maker Award

2006-2008: MTU/C.I.T. Post-graduate Research Scholarship Award

SELECTED CURRENT/FUTURE EXHIBITIONS

27/09/2024–30/06/2025 WESTERWALDPREIS 2024 Keramik Museum Westerwald, Germany. Selected maker, exhibition & awards.

18.05.2024–30/09/2024 CICA2024 42 Concurs Internacional de ceràmica de l’Alcora 2024. Museu de Ceràmica de l’Alcora, Spain. Exhibition & Awards

Earthly Bodies
24 April – 1 June 2024. Sarah Myerscough Gallery
34 North Row, London W1, UK.

Earthly Bodies, group exhibition, ceramics.
Intertwining and convening in the gallery space, each piece embodies a range of material narratives and methodologies. Together, they push and probe the lineage of ceramic tradition towards an exhibition firmly rooted in the present. Following Karen Barad’s words that ‘matter is never a settled matter’, Earthly Bodies answers to this unsettled aspect of clay, delving into the material’s capacity for metamorphosis and movement while highlighting contemporary ceramicists’ evocations of our current earthly dispositions.
Featured artists: Ken Eastman, Luke Fuller, Yoshimi Futamura, Tomonari Hashimoto, Jonathan Keep, Anne Marie Laureys, Janet Lines, Nuala O’Donovan, Jiwon Park, Aneta Regel, Mella Shaw + Julian Stair.

SELECTED PAST EXHIBITIONS

2023 Process: A Living Thing. Dean Arts Studios. Chatham Row, Dublin 2, Ireland. Curatorial support: Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll. Solo exhibition exploring studio practice and process in the development of new work. The exhibition includes drawings, 3D collage, experimental work & finished pieces from the Teasel and Banksia series.

2022 – 2023 Making In Event & Exhibition. ‘TIME’. Joseph Walsh Studios, Fartha Riverstick, Co. Cork. Curated by Joseph Walsh and Brian Kennedy. Reflections on the passage of time, showing work that was exhibited in ‘Material Poetry’ in New York in 2012 alongside current work by the artists involved. International event moderated by curator and writer, Glenn Adamson, conversations with designers, artists and makers including Mira Nakashima, Satoru Ozaki, Phillip Treacy, Tod Williams and Bille Tsien.

2021 – 2022 Conjuring Form. National Design and Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland & touring. Curated by Alice Stori Liechtenstein.

2021–2022 Irish Craft Heroes Exhibition and Book Launch. National Design and Craft Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland. Exhibition Touring also to Kilkenny Castle, Dublin Castle, Fota House, Cork. GMIT, Galway. Exhibition and book celebrating the 50 most influential makers/craftspeople in Ireland over the last 50 years.

2022 ROKSANDA. 9 Mount Street, Mayfair, London, U.K. Exhibition of sculptural work responding to the unique interior designed by Sir David Adjaye and current collection by Roksanda Illinčić.

2024 COLLECT Art Fair. Somerset House, London, U.K. National Design and Craft Gallery of Ireland, 2012, 2013, 2022 &2024.

2022 Golden Fleece Award, Exhibition of past prizewinners, curated by Aisling Prior. Solstice Arts Centre, Meath, Ireland.

2021 New Threads. Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland. Curated by Michael Waldron. Selected works from new acquisitions purchased for the National Art Collection, Ireland.

2021 On Nature Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur Tegelen, Netherlands

2020: Realising Form, Make @ Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Bruton, Somerset, U.K. Curated by Jacqueline Moore. Six makers who share a rigorous and intuitive approach to unearthing objects and vessels handcrafted in clay, iron, concrete, glass and jesmonite. The work demonstrates an expressive response to landscape and nature. Malgorzata Bany (London, UK), Daniel Freyne (Scotland), Harry Morgan (Manchester), Nuala O’Donovan (Ireland), Sue Parashiva (Isle of Wight), Patricia Shone (Isle of Skye, Scotland).

2020: In the Age of The Conscious Makers, NCAD Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. A group exhibition featuring works of contemporary art and design aligned with research specimens on loan from the Trinity Geological Museum collection, Geology Department, TCD. Exhibiting practitioners include: Bassam Al-Sabah, Felicity Clear, Niamh Coyle, Elements of Action, Sonja Landweer, Isabel Loughran, Ruth E Lyons, Fergus Martin, Fiona McDonald, Jennifer Mehigan, Helen O’Connell, Nuala O’Donovan, Cóilín Ó Dubhghaill, Niamh O’Malley, Izzy O’Reilly, Michael Ray and Vivienne Roche.

2010, ’11, ’12, 19. Ceramic Art London – RCA & CSM, London, U.K.

2019-’20: Surface Matters, Dublin Castle, NDC, Kilkenny Ireland & Barcelona, Spain

2018 – ’19: Earth, Wind & Fire-Made in Cork Contemporary’, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland.     From ancient processes to new (machine) technologies, the exhibition Earth, Wind and Fire: Made in Cork Contemporary will showcase the work of Nuala O’Donovan, Eoin Turner, Alex Pentek, Mary Palmer / Anne Kiely and Joseph Walsh. 6 Cork-based contemporary artists whose artistic practice exemplifies excellence in craftsmanship. Curated by Anne Boddaert, the curatorial focus of the exhibition is to illuminate the synergetic relationship between artistic excellence and technical skill.                                

2018: HOMO FABER – San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy.   Invited maker, Best of Europe exhibition hall, curated by Jean Blanchaert     

2018: Seven Makers’, National Gallery, Dublin, Ireland. 

2017 -’18: “Theyre Fired!’ Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, Florida, U.S.A.

2017-’18: National Museum of Ireland, Dublin. ‘Shadow of Sodeisha’.  Exhibition of Irish and Japanese artists curated by Dr. Audrey Whitty & Michael Moore. 

2017: ‘Touchstone’ Ceramics Ireland Triennnale Exhibition. Dublin, Ireland touring.

2009,’10, 17 R.H.A., Dublin, Ireland. Annual Summer Exhibition.(Invited artist)  

2017: Art Geneva’. Taste Contemporary Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland.

2015 & 2016: In Residence 1 & 2, Oliver Sears Gallery, London, U.K.   

2015: DESIRE PATHS, Nuala O’Donovan & Andrew Vass,ARTHOUSE1,London, U.K.               

2015: ‘Sculpture As Textile’, Bluecoat Arts Centre, Liverpool, U.K. 

2014: R.U.A. Annual Exhibition, Invited artist, Belfast,Northern Ireland.         

2013-’14: ‘EnArt’, British and Irish Artists. Taichung & Taipei, Taiwan. & touring                                                                                

2013: Five into Four’, Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin Ireland.

2012 & 2013: ‘Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, U.K. (Feature as selected artist, ‘Work of the Week’ – 2012)

2011 -’12: ‘Dubh-Dialogues in Black’, A.I.H.S., 5^th Avenue, New York, U.S.A. 

2011 – ’12: ‘TransForm’, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin & National Touring Exhibition.

2012: SOFA New York, (Flow gallery, London), New York, U.S.A.,

2010 & 2012: Collect, N.D.G., Saatchi Galleries, London U.K.

2011: ‘Talking in Clay’, The Courtyard, Herefordshire Centre for the Arts, U.K. 

2010-’11 ‘MATERIALpoetry’, A.I.H.S., 5^TH Avenue, New York City, U.S.A.

2009: ‘Organic Symmetry’, National Craft Gallery of Ireland, Kilkenny, Ireland.

2008-’09: ‘Breaking Out’, Emerging makers at the NCG, Kilkenny, Ireland.

2008: Nature in Clay. Solo Exhibition, Keane on Ceramics Gallery, Kinsale, Ireland