Niamh O'Malley
Niamh O'Malley is a contemporary Irish artist known for sculptures and moving image installations. Early life and education. Born in County Mayo, Ireland, O’Malley studied at University of Ulster, Belfast, earning her PhD in 2003. She lives and works in Dublin. Work. O'Malley has created a number of installations in Ireland and the UK over the last decade. Writer Jack Welsh describes her solo show at The Bluecoat, Liverpool: "Encompassing video, painting, sculpture, drawing and printmaking, the exhibition explores O’Malley’s interest in constructing images, primarily using the material and spatial properties of glass." Irish Times critic Aidan  Dunne discusses her use of glass at the Royal Hibernian Academy: "O’Malley is very taken with glass as a material in her work. If transparent, it offers a view on to a scene and often it frames the view. It can also fragment the view or obscure it." Career. O'Malley's participation in the 2011 Dublin Contemporary, a film titled "Quarry", was regarded as a stand out "moving piece" in the large exhibition. "This is Tomorrow" magazine wrote: "Many of the other successful works were contributions from Irish artists. Niamh O’Malley’s film ‘Quarry’ (2011) sumptuously captures the barren landscape  of a stone quarry." Her 2015 installation at The Douglas Hyde, which included a number of freestanding glass and metal sculptural frames, as well as video, was well received critically. Rory Prout of Enclave Review takes note that "the prevailing concern is the artist’s larger, ongoing phenomenological project... they are methods which continue to offer subtle inflections of the viewer’s observation of otherwise highly familiar environments." O'Malley, curated by Temple Bar Gallery + Studios, represented Ireland at the 59th Venice Biennale, opening in April 2022. O'Malley is a member of Aosdána. Her work is in a number of  collections, including The Hugh Lane, Irish Museum of Modern Art, and the Arts Council of Ireland.