enigma

Featuring works of bronze, glass fibre and wax sculpture, Joanna O’Kane produces unique site-specific installations conceived for individual gallery spaces. Her work is a fascinating mix of classical and experimental materials. These materials she combines with a range of techniques that invite investigation into the process of production and the enigmatic qualities of the sculptor’s practice.

Joseph Beuys described how we must seek out and energize our spirituality and link it to our thinking powers so that “our vision of the world must be extended to encompass all the invisible energies with which we have lost contact.” Joanna investigates the physical and spiritual energy in the human form. The flow of the material covering the figure gives visible presence to the energies within and elucidates what lies beneath.

With reference to her exhibition ‘Concealment’ at the Context Gallery in Derry, The Guardian commented “Joanna O’Kane has created her enigmatic performance sculptures since the early 1980s, choreographing the simple scenarios that explore the body and the objects and materials it comes into contact with.”(May 2003)

Joanna has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. She has participated in group exhibitions in Sligo Art Gallery, Boyle Arts Festival, Malone Gallery, Belfast, Royal Ulster Academy Exhibition, Ulster Museum, Oireachtas, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin, Irish Cultural Institute, Paris, The Arts Council Gallery, Belfast, Concorso Arredo Urbano, Faenza, Italy. Her work is included in many private and public collections including the International Collection of Contemporary Ceramic Art, Castelli, Italy, and the collection of Former U.S.A. Ambassador to Ireland, Jean Kennedy Smith, former President Mary Robinson, Dr. & Mrs Garrett Fitzgerald and former President Mary McAleese.