EILIS O'CONNELL: Ope, there goes gravity

Solomon Fine Art is delighted to host an exhibition of recent sculpture by one of Ireland’s most internationally recognised contemporary artists, Eilis O’Connell.

The song “Lose Yourself” by Eminem, from which the exhibition title derives, is one that O’Connell often finds playing in her head as she works. The powerful lyrics describe what it takes to be truly creative: losing oneself in the process. Gravity is something that O’Connell is constantly concerned with while developing work. She must adapt her thinking to the limitations of materials while pushing the parameters of the craft to new heights. Using her physical strength to build, bend, carve, and manipulate materials, she relies on this kinaesthetic intelligence to inform the development and equipoise of each sculpture. 

Using bronze, stone, steel, and bio-resins, O’Connell explores different material properties to create hybrid, organic-geometric structures. In these exquisitely finished sculptural works, flowing curves and asymmetry combine with meticulous engineering, reflecting O’Connell’s long-standing fascination with natural forms and both the precision and irregularities that exist in nature’s architecture. 

Born in Derry and now Cork-based, Eilis O’ Connell studied sculpture in the Crawford School of Art, Cork and the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston.  She has held major survey exhibitions at F.E McWilliam Gallery in Armagh (2023) and most recently at the Glucksman Gallery Cork (November 2025 – April 2026). O’Connell has exhibited at the Venice, Paris and Sao Paulo Biennales and the Guggenheim Museum in Venice. In 2018 her outdoor sculptures were shown at E1027 the iconic home designed by Eileen Gray in Cap Martin, France. 

O'Connell's work can be found in numerous high profile public locations in London (Canary Wharf and London Docklands Development Corporation), Cardiff, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Bristol, Southampton, Milton Keynes and in Dublin, Belfast, Dundalk, Mallow and Cork. Other privately commissioned works can be seen in Lismore Castle, Waterford, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chatsworth and in private gardens in France and Spain. 

O’Connell is a founding director of the National Sculpture Factory Cork, a former member of the Arts Council of Ireland and a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and Aosdána.