Artist Statement

Where we are matters.  I am an Irish born artist and researcher whose practice is grounded in drawing as an embodied, phenomenological mode of being in the world. I create large-scale drawing installations, wall drawings, experimental animations, and public drawing actions, often incorporating sound, moving image, and digital media. Works are developed both in the studio and on site—on architectural surfaces, rural structures, and in public spaces—transforming drawing into immersive, spatial, and sensory encounters.

My neurodivergence amplifies my sensory and spatial awareness, making the experience of space and place heightened and immediate. Spaces are never neutral; they act upon the body with affective force, shaping both the work and the encounter. I investigate how such embodied experiences can be made visible through the drawn mark.

For me, drawing is not representation but an act of presence: a gestural and sensory process that registers the invisible yet insistent forces of everyday spaces. Matter is not inert; it vibrates with emotional and cultural charge. Each work becomes an ontological event-an intra-action between body, environment, medium, and mood and invites viewers to experience their own entanglement with space and place.

In a cultural climate marked by acceleration, distraction, and ecological fragility, I regard drawing as an urgent, resistant act. It slows perception, reattunes us to our surroundings, and affirms our shared, embodied presence in the world.

Biography

Kiera O’Toole [b. 1977, Dublin] is a research-based visual artist and a casual lecturer at undergraduate and Master's level at ATU, Sligo. Her practice blends philosophical inquiry with experimental and expanded drawing, including site-specific works, installations, and stop-motion animations. O'Toole's work focuses on documenting everyday atmospheres and their specific 'spatialised feelings' , rather than her private emotions, highlighting our entanglement with the world. In 2023, O'Toole exhibited recently at the RHA,  and Leitrim Sculpture Centre. In 2024, she has been invited to exhibit at prominent galleries such as FRISE in Hamburg (GER), DAS ESSZIMMER in Bonn (GER), both funded by 'ZEITGEIST 24' Culture Ireland, and DRAWSPACE, Sydney (AUS).

O'Toole's extensive exhibition record includes shows at the RHA, CCA Derry-Londonderry (NI), University of Newcastle (AUS), National Museum of Australia, Maitland Regional Gallery (AUS), Mount-Kuring Regional Gallery (AUS), Courthouse Arts Centre in Wicklow, Art Walk Porty (SCO), The Model in Sligo, VISUAL Carlow, Highlanes Gallery, DLR Lexicon in Dublin, and Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre. Her residencies have taken place at the Leitrim Sculpture Centre, Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre, and Sligo Arts Service.

Her publications feature book chapters such as ‘Drawing Wonder’ in "Project Anywhere IV" (University of Melbourne and Parsons School of Art, NY, 2021) and 'Drawing from the Non-Place' in "Body, Space, Place in Collective and Collaborative Drawing: Drawing Conversations II" (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020). O'Toole has presented at conferences including APD - Architecture, Public Art, Drawing Seminar,
Lisbon Faculty of Fine Arts, Portugal; The Institute of Global Irish Studies at the University of NSW, the National Museum of Australia, Coventry University, and Maynooth University. She has also been a panelist for Bart Lodewijks at The Model and Visual Arts Ireland's Get Together in Dublin.

O’Toole is a professional member of Visual Arts Ireland and the Drawing Research Network (UK), and co-founded the artist collective Drawing deCentered.