Eva O'Leary (b. 1989) is an artist who works primarily with photography and video. Her work navigates structural and social systems that perpetuate ideologies of fantasy, power, and control within American society specifically focused on the impact on young women and their experience in the world. Her work is deeply personal, using her own experiences, memories, and journals as the foundation of her practice.
O'Leary received her BFA from California College of the Arts in 2012, and her MFA from Yale School of Art in 2016. She was the recipient of the Outset Unseen Exhibition Fund in 2019, the Hyères Festival Photographie Grand Prix in 2018, The Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize in 2017, and was named a Foam Talent in 2014. She has exhibited her work internationally, including at the CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), FOAM (Amsterdam), Villa Noailles (Hyeres, France), l'Atelier Néerlandais (Paris), Benaki Museum (Athens), and Aperture Foundation (New York). Her work has been featured in various publications, including ArtForum, Aperture, 1000 Words, and The New Yorker.
2016 MFA Yale University, New Haven CT
2012 BFA California College of the Arts, Oakland CA
AWARDS AND HONORS
2018 Outset Unseen Exhibition Fund
2018 ING Unseen Talent Award, Amsterdam, Netherlands (finalist)
2018 Hyeres Festival Photographie Grand Prix, Hyeres, France
2017 Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize, Zurich, Switzerland
2014 Foam Talent 2014, Foam International Photography Magazine, NL
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2021 Happy Valley, Centre Photographique Rouen Normandie, France
2020 (3.21.2020 - 09.11.2020), Hesse/ Flatow, online
2019 Happy Valley, Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France
2019 Happy Valley, Foam Fotographiemuseum, Amsterdam
2019 Spitting Image, The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland
2019 Spitting Image, Longwood University Art Museum, Virginia
2017 Happy Valley, MEYOHAS, 43-01 21st Street, Queens, New York
2017 Spitting Image, CRUSH CURATORIAL, 526 W 26 Street, NY, New York
2017 CONCEALER, Vontobel, Gotthardstrasse 43, Zurich, Switzerland
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021 (forthcoming) Face Control, curated by Urs Stahel, Fundación Foto Colectania, Barcelona, Spain
2021 (forthcoming) Saturation, Crawford Gallery, Ireland
2021 (forthcoming) Looking Forward, Pier 24, San Francisco, CA
2021 Growing up in Photography, Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA
2020 Reset, FUTURES, online
2020 Athens Photography Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece
2019 Snap Judgements, Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland
2019 Close to Home, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Looking Back, Pier 24, San Francisco, CA
2019 Radial Survey, Silver Eye Center for Photography, Pittsburgh, PA
2018 3rd Beijing Biennial, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing
2018 ING Unseen Talent Award, Unseen Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2018 Everyday Muse, LTD Los Angeles, CA
2018 HYERES Festival, Villa Noailles, Hyeres, France
2018 Camouflage, deceive, imitate, Curated by Josiane Imhasly, Old Factory, Zurich
2017 Visible Range, Deli Gallery, NY
2017 Public Installation for Biblioteca Panizzi, Curated by Luca Massaro, Reggio Emilia, Italy
2017 We Need To Talk, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
2017 Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia, Fabbrica del Vapore, Milan, Italy
2017 Winter, Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, New York, NY
2016 The Castle of Perseverance, Curated by Molly Surno, CRUSH Curatorial, Amagansett, NY
2016 REVIVER, ASHES/ ASHES, Los Angeles, CA
2016 REVIVER, Johalla Projects, Chicago, IL
2016 REVIVER, Danziger Gallery, New York, NY
2016 Treading Water, TGIF Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Hillyer Art Space, Washington DC
2015 Black Mirror, Aperture Foundation, New York, NY
2015 20/20 Vision, Nominated by Seth Curcio, Christophe Guye Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2015 Benaki Museum, Athens Photography Festival 2015, Athens, Greece
2014 OPEN, Curated by Shane Lavalette, The Center for Fine Art Photography, CO,
2014 FOAM Talent 2014, East Wing Gallery, Dubai
2014 FOAM Talent 2014, Unseen Photo Fair, Amsterdam
2014 FOAM Talent 2014, L’Atelier Neerlandais, Paris
2014 FRAMES, Curated by Hank Willis Thomas, Glasgow International Festival for Contemporary Art, Scotland
2014 First Year MFA Exhibition, Yale School of Art, Green Gallery, New Haven, CT
2014 Inaugural, 321 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Wexford Opera Festival, EXTRA, Ireland
2013 Daniel Cooney Gallery, Emerging Artists Auction, NYC
2013 White Boys, Curated by Hank Willis Thomas and Natasha Logan, Haverford College, PA
2013 89+, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
2013 Some New Work in an Abandoned Apartment, Brooklyn, NY
2013 Signal Gallery, BLOG RE:BLOG, New York, NYC
2013 Cover The Walls, 7 Dunham, Brooklyn, NY
2013 The Irish Cultural Center, New York, NY
2013 Onward Compe, Project Basho, Philadelphia, PA
2013 Girls, Girls, Girls, 7 Dunham, Brooklyn, NY
2012 13/45, North Gallery, Oakland, CA
2012 Ramon’s Tailor, San Francisco, CA
2012 The Decades Show, Hub Robison Center, State College, PA
2012 The Dying Salon, P.O Gallery, Oakland CA
2012 Zoller Gallery, State College, PA
SELECTED ONLINE PRESS & PRINT PUBLICATIONS
The Messy Truth, Episode 15, Eva O'Leary, 2020, online
Mfinanga, Mo, Eva O'Leary, EMMAZED, spring 2020, online
Mosse, Richard, Through the looking glass, Irish Arts Review, Summer 2019, Print
Meier, Anika, Eva O'Leary, Monopol, December 2019, Print
Caffrey, Darren, Eva O'Leary / Spitting Image, Circa Magazine, online
Vilanova, Constance, Spitting Image, Les Inrocks, June, 2018, online
Le (Mauvais) Reve Americain, Portfolio, Le Magazine du Monde, April 29th, 2018, Print
Smyth, Diane, Eva O'Leary wins the Hyeres Festival photographie Grand Prix, Brittish Journal of Photography, April 30th, 2018, Online
Wellneitz, Andreas, Eva O'Leary, Zeit Magazin, 12 Oktober 2017, Print
Weier, Sabine, Eva O'Leary, Camera Austria International, Issue 140, Print
Heinrich, Will, Eva O'Leary at Meyohas, The New Yorker, October 16th, Print
Glitten, Ariela, Eva O'Leary, Elephant Magazine, September 2017, Print
Weiss, Isabella, Exhibition Review: Eva O'Leary at Meyohas, Musee Magazine, September 2017, Online
Stahel, Urs, Eva O'Leary, Concealer, Essay by Urs Stahel, 1000 Words, June, 2017, Online
Rina, Amelia, 5 Exhibitions to See in May, Aperture, May 10, 2017, Online
Sargent, Antwaun, Young Women Face the Camera Head-on in a Stark Photo Series, CREATORS, May 3, 2017, Online
Schwartz, Alexandra, What Teen-Age Girls See When They Look In The Mirror, The New Yorker, May 7, 2017, Online
Halpert, Juliana, Critics' Pick: Eva O'Leary, ArtForum, April 21, 2017, Online
Sargent, Antwaun, Art In America, The Outline, February 27, 2017, Online
Baras, Yevgeniya, Eva O'Leary, Maade Magazine, Issue 05, Print
Franca, Frank, Eva O'Leary, Fondo Malerba per la Fotografia, 2017, Print
Maass, Angelika, Blicke unter die glatte Oberflache, Der Landbote, March 29, 2017, Print
Baroody, Maya, How Eva O'Leary's Photographs Challenge the Metaphor of Surface and Beauty, The Fader, October 21, 2016, Online
Fulleylove, Rebecca, Eva O'Leary's Striking Images Tackle Consumerism and Masculinity, It's Nice That, September 01, 2016, Online
Nagaoka, Ricardo, Eva O'Leary, Ain't Bad Magazine; Independent Publisher of New Photographic Art, August 23, 2016, Online
Frank, Priscilla, 10 Women Photographers Who Are Changing The Way We See The World, Huffington Post, August 13, 2016, Online
Renstrom, Elizabeth, Identity and Experience Are Examined Through the Portraiture of Eva O'Leary, VICE Photo Issue, August 08, 2016, Print
10 Yale Art Student Graduates Explore the Future of Photography, The Creators Project, July 11, 2016, Online
Sims, Jamie, The Best Photography from Yale’s MFA Students, THE NEW YORK TIMES ‘T’ STYLE MAGAZINE, May 12th, 2016, Online
Marshall, Max, Eva O'Leary, The Latent Image, September 5, 2016, Online
Leifheit, Matthew, Eva O'Leary's Photos of Unnatural Nature, VICE Magazine, May 6, 2015, Print
FOAM Magazine ‘FOAM Talent 2014’ Print
Skidmore, Maisie, Photography: Eva O'Leary's beautiful, strange images capture our imagination, It's Nice That, 12 May 2014, Online
Eva O'Leary and Harry Griffin, BLINK Magazine #30, December 2013, Print
DIS, Devils Den, Harry Griffin and Eva O'Leary, DIS Magazine, August 5, 2013, Online
RESIDENCIES
2012 Tyrone Guthrie Center, Annaghmakerrig, Ireland