Olivia O’Dwyer paints with a blend of imagination, memory, instinct, and insight, drawing on ordinary experiences that have imprinted in her mind as extraordinary or distinct in some way. Intimations of intimacy combined with a Bad Painting* style mean these new, small canvases are sometimes funny, sometimes awkward, nearly always unsettling. O’Dwyer is happy to tell us she is making paintings about women’s health (including her own) and relationships, and processing memories in ways that are not always explicit. But when she talks about her work, she says, “I hope other connotations come to mind.” They do, and that is the point.
Extract from an accompanying text by Cristín Leach

Olivia O’Dwyer is a visual artist from Limerick, now living in Co. Wexford. Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Lockdown Diaries’, Wexford Arts Centre (2021), ‘Recurrence’ Creative Hub Studios, Wexford (2019), ‘Landlines’, Wexford Arts Centre (2015), ‘Art Out West’, Cwtch Arts Centre, Pembrokeshire, Wales (2014). Recent selected group exhibitions include Beep Painting Biennial, Swansea Wales (2022), ‘From the Mountain’ with Selected works from the Arts Council Collection of Ireland, Wexford Arts Centre & Wexford County Council (2019), Exhibition and residency funded by Culture Ireland, in association with Wexford Arts Centre, Siddhartha Gallery, Kathmandu, Nepal (2018). O’Dwyer was awarded an Artlinks bursary and a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, Co. Monaghan, 2022 and was the recipient of the Making and Momentum Prize artist prize, supported by Creative Ireland and artist/designer Richard Malone 2022. O’Dwyer was also awarded an Agility Award from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2022. O’Dwyer’s work is held in the public collections of the EU Ambassador, Kathmandu, Nepal, Suzhou International School, China and Wexford Arts Centre’s permanent collection.