Biography
David O’Kane studied from 2007 until 2012 under professor Neo Rauch at the HGB (Academy of Visual Arts) in Leipzig, Germany. He received a Diplom Degree with distinction in 2009 and a Meisterschüler Degree in 2012. His studies were funded by an extended DAAD Scholarship. He also holds a 1st Class Joint-Honours Degree in Fine Art & History of Art from NCAD in Dublin (2006).
O’Kane has won numerous awards, scholarships and residencies. In 2014 he won the Golden Fleece Award in Dublin. He was resident artist at the Stiftung Starke in Berlin from 2010 until 2013. He was awarded the Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship and Residency at the British School at Rome in 2009. Tom Morton awarded him joint first prize at the Claremorris Open Exhibition. In 2008 his short film ‘Babble’ was produced by eva and it won an eva open award from the curator, Hou Hanru. He also exhibited in eva in 2009. His proposal for the artistic projects tender at the Serralves em Festa 2008 in Oporto, Portugal was commissioned by the Regina Guimarães. In 2006 he won the R.C. Lewis-Crosby Award at the Royal Dublin Society.
His work is represented in collections such as Busan Museum of Art in South Korea; the Kuntshalle der Sparkasse in Leipzig, Germany; the Zabludowicz Collection in London, UK; the CAP Foundation in Dublin, Ireland; the Trapaga-Fonalledas Collection in Puerto Rico, the Starke Foundation collection in Berlin, Germany and many international private collections.
O'Kane maintains studios in Berlin, Germany and Donegal, Ireland.
Curriculum Vitae
| David O’Kane | |
| b. 1985 in Lifford, County Donegal, Ireland. | |
| David O'Kane lives and works in Dublin, Ireland and Berlin, Germany | |
| Education | |
| 2010 – 2012 | Meisterschüler Degree at the Academy of Visual Arts (HGB) Leipzig, Germany under professor Neo Rauch |
| 2007 – 2009 | Diplom, Academy of Visual Arts (HGB)Leipzig, Germany under professor Neo Rauch (Graduation with Distinction) |
| 2002 – 2006 | Bachelor of Art Joint Honours Degree in History of Art and Fine Art Painting, The National College of Art and Design |
| (NCAD), Dublin (Graduation with a First Class Honours) | |
| Selected Awards | |
| 2018 | Shortlisted for the Visual Art Award, Irish Embassy, Berlin, Germany (selected by Dr. Katja Blomberg & Seán Kissane) |
| 2014 | Winner of the Golden Fleece Award, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2013 | Shortlisted for the Golden Fleece Award, Dublin, Ireland |
| Shortlisted for the '100 Painters of Tomorrow', Thames and Hudson Book initiated by Kurt Beers | |
| 2011 | Travel and Mobility Award, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2010 | Travel and Mobility Award, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2009 | Claremorris Open Exhibition Award (awarded by the Curator Tom Morton) |
| 2008 | 2 Honorary Awards for Video and Installation, 1st Montijo International Plastic Arts Biennial– IX Vespeira Prize, Portugal |
| Winner of the artistic projects tender at the Serralves em Festa 2008 in Oporto, Portugal
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| (awarded by the curator Regina Guimarães) | |
| eva International Open Award, Limerick, Ireland. (awarded by the Curator Hou Hanru) | |
| 2007 | Travel and Mobility Award, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin |
| 2006 | Travel and Mobility Award, Arts Council of Ireland, Dublin |
| R.C. Lewis-Crosby Award for Painting at the Royal Dublin Society | |
| O’Sullivan Award for Graphic Art, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin | |
| 2005 | Emerging Artist Award, Portrait Ireland, Wexford |
| Selected Residencies | |
| 2014 – 2017 | Residency at the Fire Station Artist's Studios, Dublin, Ireland |
| 2016 | ACME Studios Residency Exchange, London, UK |
| Residency at the Irish Embassy in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia | |
| 2011 – 2013 | Extension of residency at the Stiftung Starke, Berlin, Germany |
| 2010 – 2011 | Residency at the Stiftung Starke, Berlin, Germany |
| Residency at the Pilotenkueche, The Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 2009 | Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship & Residency at the British School at Rome |
| Lithography Residency at Obelisk Studio, Uithuizermeeden, The Netherlands | |
| Artist in Residence at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland | |
| 2008 | Leipzig International Art Programme, The Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany |
| 2006 – 2007 | CAP Foundation Residency Award, Lower Leeson Street, Dublin |
| (Selected by Linda Pilaro, Luke Clancy, Duncan McClaren and Neil Burke Kennedy) | |
| Selected Scholarships | |
| 2008 | DAAD Scholarship Extension, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Bonn, Germany |
| 2007 | DAAD Scholarship, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, Bonn, Germany |
| 2006 | Short-listed for Hennessy Craig Scholarship, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin |
| 2004 | Henry Higgins Travel Scholarship, Royal Dublin Society |
| Thomas Dammann Travel Scholarship, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin | |
| Selected Solo Exhibitions | |
| 2020 | ‘Gallery of Glass’, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany [September] |
| 2017 | ‘Splendide Mendax’, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin |
| 'A Melancholy Object', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'Lapse of Time', Observation Deck, Gallery Baton, Seoul, South Korea | |
| ‘A Modest Proposal’, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| ‘A Modest Proposal’, Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland | |
| 2016 | 'The Glass Harmonica', Gallery Baton, Seoul, South Korea |
| 'The Acuity of Blindness', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 2015 | 'Beltany', Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland |
| 2014 | 'Continuum – Repetition & Difference', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany |
| 'The Zoetrope – Repetition & Difference', Gallery Baton, Seoul, South Korea | |
| 2013 | ‘Der Spieler – Homo Ludens’, Stiftung Starke, Berlin, Germany |
| 2012 | ‘Blindsight’, Meisterschüler Exhibition, Leipzig, Germany |
| ‘The Persistence of Vision’, Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 2010 | ‘Still’, Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland |
| 2009 | 'Animare', Heidestrasse 46, Berlin, Germany |
| ‘Dissection’, Filipp Rosbach Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| ‘Doppelgänger’, Pierogi Gallery, Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany | |
| Selected Group Exhibitions | |
| 2020 | ‘Prime’, Gallery Baton at Art Brussels with Koen van den Broek & Woohyuk Bin, Belgium [April] |
| 2019 | ‘The ever widening spiral’, Boston College Ireland, Dublin, Ireland |
| ‘The Epiphenomenal Magic Lantern Show’, Irish Embassy, Berlin, Germany | |
| ‘Genius of Genre’, John J. Burns Library in Boston College, Massachusetts, USA [curated by Christian Dupont] | |
| 2018 | ‘salondergegenwart’, Hamburg, Germany (curated by Margarita und Christian Holle) |
‘New Irish Creatives’, Irish Embassy, Berlin, Germany (curated by Sheena Malone and selected by Dr. Katja Blomberg & Seán Kissane) |
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| ‘Light, Non-Light’, Chapter II, Seoul, South Korea | |
‘MdbK meets G2’ (Painting from Leipzig since 2000), Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany |
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| 'Das ganze Programm [Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself ...]', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 2017 | 'Der stinknormale Mann', Riesa Efau, Kultur Forum Dresden, Germany (curated by Denise Ackermann and Frank Eckhardt) |
| 'Acting Out – The Shadow on the Wall', Salzburg University, Austria | |
| 'Ladder to Heaven', Neuer Pfaffenhofener Kunstverein, Germany | |
| Impressions Print Biennale, Cluain Mhuire Centre for the Creative Arts and Media, Galway, Ireland (curated by Jason Hicklin) | |
| 187th Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland | |
| ‘Jetzt Druck Machen’, Museum Angerlehner, Thalheim bei Wels, Austria | |
| 2016 | 'Imagination Dead Imagine' & Selected Prints', Kulturgut Hirtscheid, Germany |
| 'On Paper', SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin, Ireland | |
| 'COE '16 New Century Retro - A Selection of COE Prize-winners', Claremorris, County Mayo, Ireland (curated by Helen O'Donoghue) | |
| Summer Show, SO Fine Art Editions, Dublin, Ireland | |
| Impresssions Book Art Exhibition, Centre for Creative Arts and Media at GMIT, Galway, Ireland | |
| 186th Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland | |
| 'The Shadow on the Wall', Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland | |
| 2015 | 'Imagination Dead Imagine', Cavanacor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland |
| 'Imagination Dead Imagine', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'The Liminal Space', Gallery Baton, Seoul, South Korea | |
| 'Trash', Gallery Eastmen, Hasselt, Belgium (curated by Koen van den Broek) | |
| 2014 | 184th Annual Exhibition, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland |
| 'Xmas in February', Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'Multiple Times', Campoi Gallery, Munich, Germany | |
| 'Open Your Eyes', Galerie Maïa Muller, Paris, France | |
| 2013 | 'neither here nor there II' (Contemporary Irish), Galway Arts Centre, Ireland |
| 'pilot projekt_', Hansaallee 159 in Düsseldorf, Germany | |
| 'neither here nor there' (Contemporary Irish), Grimmuseum, Berlin, Germany | |
| ‘Der Aufstand der Dinge’, Neue Kunstverein Aschaffenberg, Germany | |
| ‘Die Schwarze Zunge’, Winterthur, Switzerland | |
| 2012 | ‘Divergence’, Gallery Baton, Seoul, South Korea |
| ‘envia Kunstkalender’, Chemnitz, Germany | |
| 'German Now From Leipzig', Seong Nam Arts Center, Seoul, South Korea | |
| ‘Tafeldienst’, Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig, Germany | |
| ‘Die Schwarze Zunge’, Städtische Galerie im Schloss in Isny im Allgäu, Germany | |
| 2011 | ‘Zum Gebrauch des Delphins’, Städische Galerie, Wurzen, Germany |
| ‘Die Schwarze Zunge’, Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'I have looked everywhere that can be looked', Cavancor Gallery, Donegal, Ireland |
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| ‘Le Mal de Montano’, Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil, Paris, France |
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| ‘Summer Group Exhibition’, Stiftung Starke, Berlin, Germany |
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| ‘L'art de la rencontre’, Galerie Favardin & de Verneuil, Paris, France |
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| ‘After the Goldrush’, Kunstverein Speyer, Städtische Galerie Speyer, Germany |
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| ‘Its not them, its us’, Pilotenkueche, The Spinnerei, Leipzig, Germany | |
| 2010 | ‘Der Ehemalige Norden / The Former North’, Kunstverein Wilhelmshöhe Ettlingen, Germany |
| ‘The Salon Art Prize Exhibition’, Matt Roberts Arts Project Space, London, England | |
| (Curated by Peter Bonnell, Kate MacGarry and Richard Birkett) | |
| Claremorris Open Exhibition, Mayo, Ireland (curated by Lisa le Feuvre) | |
| ‘New Bottle, Old Wine’, Filipp Rosbach Gallery, Leipzig, Germany | |
| ‘The Library of Babel / In and Out of Place’, 176 Zabludowicz Collection, London, England
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| (curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers) | |
| 2009 | ‘The things I did and the money I spent’, The British School at Rome, Rome, Italy |
| CAP Foundation Exhibition, NCAD Gallery, Dublin, Ireland | |
| ‘Neun Neue’, Lindenau Museum, Altenburg Germany | |
| Claremorris Open Exhibition, Mayo, Ireland (curated by Tom Morton) | |
| ‘Baluster’, Columbus Art Foundation Leipzig, Germany | |
| ‘Werkschau 2009’, 125th SPINNEREI anniversary exhibition, Leipzig, Germany | |
| eva International, Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick, Ireland (selected and curated by Angelika Nollert and Yilmaz Dziewior) | |
| 2008 | ‘Impressions’, Print Exhibition, Galway Arts Centre, Galway, Ireland |
| 'Winter Salon', Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Ireland | |
| Claremorris Open Exhibition, (curated by Lizzie Carey Thomas) | |
| 1st Montijo International Plastic Arts Biennial– IX Vespeira Prize, Portugal | |
| Serralves em Festa 2008 in Oporto, Portugal (selected by the Regina Guimarães) | |
| eva International, Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick, Ireland (selected and curated by Hou Hanru) | |
| Selected Curatorial Projects | |
| 2016 | 'Far From Me', Group Exhibition featuring Seth Armstrong, Sebastian Boulter, Colin Martin, Carol Anne McGowan & Rebecca Partridge Josef Filipp Galerie, Leipzig, Germany |
| Selected Collections | |
| The Zabludowicz Collection, London, U.K. | |
| Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig, Germany | |
| St. Elisabeth Hospital, Leipzig, Germany | |
| The Trapaga-Fonalledas family collection, Puerto Rico | |
| Academie Minerva, Groningen, The Netherlands | |
| Stanford University, U.S.A. | |
| Yale University, U.S.A. | |
| Princeton University, U.S.A. | |
| Boston College, U.S.A. | |
| Arizona State University, U.S.A. | |
| Florida State University, U.S.A. | |
| The National Library of Ireland | |
| The CAP Foundation, Dublin, Ireland | |
| The Office of Public Works, Dublin, Ireland | |
| Bank of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland | |
| AXA Insurance, Dublin, Ireland | |
| National Irish Visual Art Library, National College of Art & Design, Dublin, Ireland | |
| Trinity College Dublin, Ireland | |
| Various private collections in Germany,Ireland, Korea, England, Finland, Denmark and USA | |
| Selected Bibliography | |
| 2016 | 'Blindsight', artist's book, published by Gallery Baton, Seoul South Korea, (Winter 2016) |
| 'Loss of Liberty', Discussion between Rory Prout & David O'Kane, Visual Artists' Newssheet, September/October 2016. | |
| 2013 | ‘Rätselhafte Geschichten’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 4 April 2013, NR. 78, page 39. By Katinka Fischer |
| 2012 | ‘Starke Bilder, feiner Schmelz’, Mitteldeutsche Zeitiung, 16 October 2012, Günther Kowa |
| ‘Das Happy End in der Dauerschleife’, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 6 October 2012, NR. 233, page 35. | |
| By Andreas Platthaus | |
| ‘Auswege aus der Schleife’, Leipziger Volkszeitung, 2. October 2012, page 11. By Jens Kassner | |
| ‘Tafeldienst – Meisterklasse Neo Rauch’, Kunsthalle der Sparkasse, Leipzig. | |
| With texts by Neo Rauch and interviews by Constanze Treuner | |
| 2011 | ‘Zum Gebrauch des Delphins – Meisterklasse Neo Rauch’,Städische Galerie, Wurzen. |
| With texts by Meinhard Michael and Dr. Sabine Jung. | |
| 'The Oxford American', Conway, Arkansas, U.S.A. | |
| 'Essay Magazine', Studio Ahira, London, England | |
| 2010 | ‘Der Ehemalige Norden – Meisterklasse Neo Rauch”, with texts by Clemens Meyer and Neo Rauch, |
| Designed by Maria Magdalena Koehn, Salon Verlag, Berlin | |
| ‘Doppelgänger’, catalogue of work by David O’Kane with texts by Martin Germann and Francis McKee, | |
| Designed by Jamie Murphy, Fjord, Ireland | |
| 2009 | 'Claremorris Open Exhibition Catalogue', Ireland |
| ‘Werkschau 2009’, 125th SPINNEREI anniversary Catalogue , Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'Spinnerei Report 2009', Leipzig, Germany | |
| 'eva International Exhibition Catalogue', e v+a, Limerick, Ireland | |
| 2008 | 'Claremorris Open Exhibition Catalogue', Ireland |
| Exhibition Catalogue for the 1st Montijo International Plastic Arts Biennial, Portugal | |
| 'Leipzig International Art Programme', Documentary (Broadcast in Germany) | |
| 'eva International Exhibition Catalogue', e v+a, Limerick, Ireland | |
| 'Utopias and Other Lands in Limerick', The Irish Times, 19 March 2008, , Dublin, Ireland, Aidan Dunne | |
| 2007 | 'Generating New Perspectives', Visual Artists Newsletter, November 2007, David O’Kane |
| 'Experiments with the symbolic power of nature', The Irish Times, 20 June 2007, Aidan Dunne | |
| ‘Fear Not’, Iontas Catalogue Sligo Art Galley, Ireland | |
| 'New-media art: An Irish context', CIRCA 120, Summer 2007 , Dublin, Ireland, Paul O’Brien | |
| 'CAP Foundation Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland, Interview by Luke Clancy | |
| 2006 | 'Royal Dublin Society Student Art Awards Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland |
| 'Students pile the metaphors high', The Irish Times. 9 June 2006, , Dublin, Ireland, Aidan Dunne | |
| 'Academic or just old-fashioned', Sunday Tribune, 4 June 2006, , Dublin, Ireland, Eimear McKeith | |
| 'Portraits of the artists', The Irish Times, 1 June 2006, Dublin, Ireland, Aidan Dunne | |
| 'RHA Prize giving ceremony', Donegal Democrat, 1 June 2006, Ireland | |
| 'Royal Hibernian Academy 176th Annual Exhibition Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland | |
| Dagblad van het Noorden, 27 February, Groningen, The Netherlands, Eric Nederkoorn | |
| 2005 | 'New Irish Painting', Exhibition Catalogue, Derry, Northern Ireland with text by Robert Armstrong |
| 'Royal Dublin Society Student Art Awards Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland | |
| 2004 | ‘Depict! 2004’, Brief Encounters Promotional Dvd |
| 'Royal Dublin Society Student Art Awards Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland | |
| 'Royal Hibernian Academy 174th Annual Exhibition Catalogue', Dublin, Ireland | |
| 2003 | Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung, 12 August 2003, Dorothee Baer-Bogenschütz |
| 'Can Artists', Hot-press. Vol. 27, No. 22, 19 November 2003, Maurice O’Brien | |