Biography
Born in Dublin, Gwen O’Dowd studied at the National College of Art & Design, and began exhibiting in the mid-1980s. Her formal concerns have always been rooted deeply in the tradition of landscape painting, yet the specific locales from which she has drawn inspiration, the modes of addressing them, and the metaphoric import of the resulting series of paintings, have varied considerably over the years.
Among the aspects of the landscape O’Dowd has registered over the past decade are the ecological devastation of the Gulf War, the epic grandeur of the Grand Canyon, and most recently, the mythically sexualised landscape of rural Ireland. She has exhibited regularly in Ireland and Britain, as well as continental Europe and North America.
She participated in the L’Imaginaire Irlandais festival in Paris in 1996, and her work is in many public and private collections. Among other awards, Gwen O’Dowd won the Oireachtas Exhibition prize in 1990 and the Íontas Exhibition prize in 1994. O’Dowd is one of Ireland’s foremost contemporary artists; she has received many awards and prizes and is a member of Aosdana.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022 New Works from the Studio, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2019 Limen, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2017 Print, Graphic Studio, Dublin
2015 Tonn, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2011 New Works, Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
2010 Sea, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2008 Waterbased 2, Vangard Gallery, Cork
2007 Waterbased 1, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2005 Cladach 2, Vangard Gallery, Cork
2004 Cladach, New Works, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2003 Spaces, Vangard Gallery, Cork
2001 New Paintings, Art First Contemporary, Cork Street, London
2001 Diptychs, Vangard Gallery, Cork
2000 5 Diptychs, Ashford Gallery, RHA, Dublin
1999 New Works, Vangard Gallery, Dublin
1990, 1992, 1995, 1997 Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
1989 West Cork Arts Centre
1989 Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
1987 Welsh Works, Fishguard, Wales
1984 Urban Works, Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Selected Group Exhibitions
2012 Across the Decades, 2 person show Gwen O’Dowd and Eilis O’Connell, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2009 Works on Paper, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2004 In the Time of Shaking, Art for Amnesty, IMMA, Dublin
2003 Gallery Artists, Hillsboro Fine Art, Dublin
2000 Artists Century, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
2000 RHA Annual, Dublin
2000 Art First, London
1999 British Contemporary Landscape, Flowers East, London
1998 Art First, Cork Stree, London
1998 Art into Print, National Gallery, Dublin
1997 Re: Dressing Cathleen, Boston College, USA
1996 L’Imaginaire Irlandais, Galerie Claude-Samuel, Paris
1994 Coram Gallery, London
1993 Recent Acquisitions, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
1992 Welcome Europe, Holstebro Junstmuseum, Denmark
1991 Parable Island, Blue Coat Gallery, Liverpool
1990 Nature and Culture, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
1990 24th International Prix of Contemporary Art, Monte Carlo
1988 Two-Person Exhibition, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
1986 Decade Exhibition, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin
1988 Mid-Wales Open, Aberystwyth, Wales
1985 Edinburgh/Dublin Exhibition, Edinburgh, Scotland
1985 Group Exhibition, Taylor Galleries, Dublin
1984 16 Artists, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin