Deirdre O'Mahony Biography
Deirdre O’Mahony's public art projects include X-PO, a former post office re-purposed as a social and cultural exchange space. The project was the 2007 artwork in Modern Ireland in 100 Artworks and is included in Tania Bruguera’s Arte Útil Archive. More recently, arising from research in X-PO SPUD examines ideas of sustainability, food security and rural/urban relationships, through potato projects in Ireland, USA, Spain and the UK and concludes with a film, The Persistant Return, currently in production as part of the Callan Workhouse Guild Project curated by Hollie Kearns and Rosie Lynch for Callan Workhouse Union and supported by the Arts Council//An Chomhairle Ealaíonn project award, 2016.
In 2016 further public projects took place, or are in development. A research residency for Grizedale Arts' A Fair Land at the Irish Museum of Modern Ar called A Village Plot, a Iarsma: Artist and the Archive a collaboration with Rionach Ní Néill, Tim Collins and Nessa Cronin in response to Tim Robinson's archive in the National University of Ireland Galway, What Would Kathleen Say? for Mayo County centenary celebrations curated by Catherine Marshall, First Citizens Speak commissioned by Bealtaine as part of VOLTage in association with Clare County of Culture and glór and supported by The Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaíonn, Resort Residency for Fingal County arts office and Grasslands, curated by Birgitte Kristensen and Lene Noer for Aarhaus Capital of Culture, Denmark which took place during 2017
O’Mahony has published and been written about extensively, had numerous national and international gallery and museum exhibitions, and been awarded fellowships and residencies including a Pollock-Krasner Award and Arts Council of Ireland bursaries. She is also an academic and lecturer at the Centre for Creative Arts and Media, GMIT, Galway and completed a PhD New Ecologies Between Rural Life and Visual Culture in the West of Ireland: History, Context, Position, and Art Practice at the University of Brighton in 2012. Her recent research is focused on spatial politics and the relationship between the social, natural and political ecologies of rural and urban 21C life.