Tom O’Dea is an Irish visual artist living and working in Hong Kong. He received a BA (Honours) degree in Fine Art (Painting) at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and a Masters in Fine Art (Painting-research by practice) at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Recent exhibitions include rest things at 1a space, Hong Kong, reclamation at nag Gallery, Dublin, pillow shot at nag Gallery, Dublin, This is not Architecture at the Highlanes Municipal Art Gallery, Drogheda, Ireland and a yellow rose at the Freemason’s Grand Lodge in Dublin. He teaches as Assistant Professor at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University.
 


As an artist and researcher in the field of expanded painting practices, my work reconsiders the modernist critique of painting, and often the absurdity of the polemics involved, while pushing the boundaries of what can be considered to be within the territory of painting. I identify as a painter but produce works using methodologies not traditionally associated with the discipline of painting. The nature of my approach necessitates constant in-depth research through practice in parallel with close study of theoretical writings investigating the nature of the medium. Working with a formal restlessness and avoiding seriality, each work subtly shifts its methodology and demands a reconsideration of approaches to painting. Most recently, my research has focussed on the space between painting and sculpture. The underlying question of how far painterly practice can be pushed in proximity to methodologies of other disciplines and yet maintain integrity as a painterly proposition has become central to my studio practice in recent years.
In parallel to my practice based research, recent projects have utilised curatorial practice as a research tool.