Opening Reception: Saturday, August 6th, 3 – 5 pm
O’Hara creates imaginary landscapes inspired by her interactions with real physical space. This body of work is rooted in an exploration of the material nature of paint. Paint contains a vast amount of potential and unpredictability. Working in a space between control and freedom, she responds to the materiality of paint, allowing her the opportunity to investigate the physical world. Brush marks, drips, and splatters become a documentation of her existence and engagement in the world. The act of making, doing, and experiencing is what gives us information about our surroundings.
O’Hara overlaps layers of transparent paint, creating spaces full of movement and experience that extend beyond the edges of the paper. Significant gestural marks incorporate the movement of her body. These large marks complement areas of intricate detail, spaces where micro and macro perspectives are referenced. In pairing these contrasting marks, her work oscillates between the intimate and the immeasurable.
Through the medium of paint, Colleen O’Hara explores process and material. Her work questions our understanding of physical space. Colleen’s paintings have been exhibited in various group exhibitions throughout the Northeast and in three separate solo exhibitions, one of which was in Brooklyn, NY. O’Hara received her MFA in Painting and Drawing from the State University Of New York at New Paltz in 2016. In 2013 she received her BFA in Painting from Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Colleen currently lives and works in Otego, NY, and is an adjunct instructor at Mohawk Valley Community College.
Acknowledgments
The activities of the Delaware Valley Arts Alliance are made possible in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support from the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
