About

Noël O´Callaghan was born in Cork City, Ireland.  Painting was central  to the environment she grew up in as her father was the  painter Diarmuid O’Ceallachain (1915-1992). After attending the Crawford College of Art, she graduated from UCC with a degree in English literature. She worked as a professional actor before moving to Berlin in the mid-80s and becoming a full time visual artist. The main focus of Noël O´Callaghan’s work is the lived moment and how to accurately express its fleeting intensity with fluidity and economy.

“ I make art to process and clarify my immediate surroundings and situations. I cut out extraneous
detail in order to see the essentials in my environment. I am motivated by the quest for these essentials. Painting and drawing require a constant evaluation to assess what level of distraction is legitimate
and what diverts from the essence of the subject or situation.

The forms suggest a narrative which is fluid and open to interpretation. The colour and tones suggest the mood. I want the forms to be decisive in execution but at the same time to evoke ambiguity, like shapes on the edge of perception, a lingering mood on awakening from a vivid dream.
I try to convey a sense of ‘suddenness’ in my work – the immediacy of that moment of perception before there is time to decode the information and categorise it. I hope always to be surprised by the results. I want the works to look light and unlaboured, as if the work of a moment, belying the many years that some some paintings take to complete. I am always juggling spontaneity and control.

I also want to make something of beauty, by which I mean a work that satisfies my own personal
aesthetic of sparse lyricism and unsentimental romanticism.”

Noël admires the German Expressionists such as Nolde and Munch and the Abstract Expressionists such as Rothko and Frankenthaler, while Egon Scheile is an inspiration in the area of life-drawing which she practices regularly. Though she favours energy over academicism in painting, drawing is nonetheless an important aspect of her work. Her durational work ‘Live’, based on life-drawing in public spaces, was the first art event to be part of the Dublin Theatre Festival’s main programme in 1995. Noël has been commissioned for a number of public art projects in Berlin and has exhibited widely in both solo and juried shows, including the Oireachtas, the Crawford Open and Iontas. In 2020 she was shortlisted for the Janet Mularney prize and selected for the Highlanes Gallery Open Submission Exhibition. Her work can be found in private and public collections in Ireland, Germany, UK, China and USA. She has received awards from the Irish Arts council and the Berlin Ministry of Culture.

Recent events include a collaboration with Douglas Henderson called Feathers for Rosa- a tribute to Rosa Luxemburg which premiered at The New Theatre, Dublin in March 2024 and included, painting, performance, music, poetry and film . In June 2024 she had a solo show in Berlin at the Michaela Helfrich Gallery as part of the Zeitgeist Irland 24 programme from Culture Ireland and in July, held a solo exhibition in Cnock Bui art centre. She took part in the summer group exhibition in the Oliver Cornet Gallery, Dublin.  In Autumn, her residency at Uillinn: WestCork Arts Centre was called “The West Cork Beastiary” and was very popular with dog lovers who could bring their Significant  Animal to have a live portrait painted in watercolours. The results were published in a calendar for 2025 titled “Madra” ( available in Uillinn). She is working towards a solo exhibition in the Lavit Gallery, Cork City opening June 19th 2025.

 

Selected Solo Shows

• July 2024, Cornfields and Other Constructions, Cnoc Bui art centre, Union Hall, Co.Cork

• June 2024 Changelings in Nighttown,  Michaela Helfrich Gallery, Berlin

• March 2024 Feathers for Rosa, The New Theatre, Dublin

• 2018 Affinities, Uillinn, West Cork Art Centre, Skibbereen

• 2017 A Rainbow in Curved Air, two person show with Cóilín Murray at the Doswell Gallery
• 2015 Súil Siar, Irish Embassy, Berlin
• 2014 Súil Siar, Aras Inis Gluaire Arts Centre, Belmullet, Co. Mayo
• 2009 Pet Parade, Galerie im Saalbau, Berlin
• 2005 Mitte, Brecht Haus, Berlin
• 2002 Görlitzer Park, Brecht Haus, Berlin
• 2001 Mullingar Art Centre, Ireland
• 2000 Galerie Anton, Berlin (C)
• 1998 Davis Gallery, Dublin
• 1998 Origin Gallery, Dublin

 

Selected Group Shows

2024 Pink is my colour, Oliver Cornet Gallery, Dublin

Winter Light Uillinn : West Cork Arts Centre

48-Stunden – Neukolln, Weight Contemporary, Berlin

Works from Stock, Lavit Gallery, Cork

2023 Land, Grilse Gallery, Kilorglin, Co.Kerry

Winter Exhibition, Lavit Gallery, Cork

Hungry for Love, Galerie Michaela Helfrich, Berlin

Roaming, LHQ Gallery County Hall, Cork City

Four Seasons, West Cork creates, Cnoc Bui, Union Hall, Co. Cork

Members and Friends, Uillinn, West Cork Art Centre, Skibbereen, Co.Cork

 Roaming, LHQ Gallery Cork City

2022 West Cork Creates

2022 West Cork Artists, Catherine Hammond Gallery, Bantry

• 2021 140th Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition, Belfast
• Crossings, Boyle Arts Festival, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland

2020 Highlanes Open, shortlisted for the Janet Mularney prize

 Harvest, West Cork Creates, Skibbereen

2019 Catherine Hammond Gallery at VUE Art Fair, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin

Sketch the Moment, Gallery Zeitzone, Berlin

• 2017/18 Neukölln Production, Berlin
• 2017 Silent Auction, The Drawing Hub, Berlin
• 2017 10 Jahre, Kunstverein Neukölln, Berlin
• 2016 Summer Exhibition, Lavitt Gallery, Cork, Ireland
• 2016 2nd NSK State Folk Art Bienniale, Burren College of Art Gallery
• 2015/16 Art Garage, 48 Stunden Festival, Berlin
• 2014 Hysteria, Soma Art Gallery, Berlin
• 2012 Irish Wave, Shanghai, China
• 2011 Turm-Modell-Akt, Galerie im Turm, Berlin
• 2010 Blasphemy, Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin
• 2010 Anonyme Zeichner, Uferhallen, Berlin
• 2009 Anonyme Zeichner, Künstlerhaus Bethanian, Berlin
• 2009 Drawing Eire, 411 Gallery, China (C)
• 2008, 2007, 2006, Kunstraum t27, Berlin – kunstraumt27.de
• 2005 Portraito Formato, Meno Parkas Gallery, Lithuania (C)
• 2004 Fenton Gallery, Cork
• 2003 Cill Rialaig Show, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
• 2001 Oireachtas, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
• 2000 Hallward Gallery, Dublin
• 1998 The Figure Show, Irish Artists in Berlin, Galerie in Körner Park, Berlin (C)
• 1996 Volume, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, (curator Allana Heiss, P.S.1, N.Y.) (C)
• 1995, 1996 Iontas (C)

 

Installation/Performance/Interventions

• 2015 Sketch of the Day, Facebook daily sketch – www.facebook.com/noel.ocallaghan.77
• 2008, 2007, 2006, Pet Parade, Berlin (with dougfender) pet-parade.de
• 2005 Hunde Salon, commissioned by Neukölln Arts Council, Berlin
• 2003 reset, Dublin Theatre Festival (with dougfender)
• 1997 Makinalasmak, multimedia installation, Cork Institute of Technology (with dougfender)
• 1995 Live, performance / installation based on life drawing – main programme of   Dublin Theatre Festival
• AWARDS
  Irish Arts Council Touring Grant for ‘Live’
  Irish Art Flight Awards
  Irish Cultural Relations Committee Transport Grants
  Berlin Studio GrantRESIDENCIES
• • Uillinn: West Cork Arts Centre, 2024
  • AA Samuolis Symposium, Lithuania
  • Cill Riallaig Project, Co. Kerry, Ireland
  • Kiltimagh Artists Residency, Co. Mayo, Ireland