Alison O’Shea is a visual artist and curator currently based in Montréal, Canada.  Her curatorial and artistic practices’ primary research concerns include alternative methodologies of productivity and creating sustainable practice models through speculative fiction.

Alison completed a Masters of Letters in Curatorial Practice (Contemporary Art) at Glasgow School of Art in 2020 and completed her BA Hons in Fine Art from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2018.

In 2021 Alison received a Visual Arts Bursary Award strand 2 for curators from the Arts Council of Ireland, with this funding she organised events and exhibitions, collaborating with emerging artists in and around Cork city. These projects included; Table Games a solo exhibition by Nina Nadig and Eva George Richardson McCrea, The Crypt at St. Luke’s, Cork, Ireland, 2022, Can you hear me Damo? a solo exhibition by Anne May Tabb, St Peter’s Vision Centre, Cork, Ireland, 2022, Slow Puncture a solo exhibition by Lily O’Shea, The Lord Mayor’s Pavilion, Cork and a passive house, event series comprising of food event and artist presentations, with Fiona Kelly, Dori O’Connell, Mary O’Leary and Lily O’Shea at Rebel Reads, Cork, Ireland, 2021.

Alison has been a gallery technician with The Lewis Glucksman Gallery since 2018 and technician with Flynns Arts Services since 2020. She was researcher and videographer with the Drawbridge Research hub at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design. She has sat on exhibition selection
committees with the Backwater Artist Group, Cork and written for multiple galleries such as the Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, Cork and Gallery DODO, Brighton, UK.

Further curatorial projects include; a passive house, Fiona Kelly, Dori O’Connell, Mary O’Leary and Lily O’Shea, relaxation*, Siuán Ní Dhochartaigh, Glasgow, UK; Over or Under, Molly O’Leary and Dominique Rivard, co-curated with Joe Henry and Cecelia Graham, Glasgow, UK; and Burning Down
the House, Cork, Ireland, Avril Corroon, Michelle Doyle and Isabel English. 
Alison was curatorial resident with TACTIC Visual Arts Programme, Sample Studios, Cork, graduate resident at NO. 46 Grand Parade Gallery, Cork, desk research resident at The Guesthouse Project, Cork.

Group shows have included Cahoots: Sample w/ A4, A4 Sounds, Dublin, Ireland, 2019, SEE/SAW, CCAD, Cork, Ireland, 2018, 5+1, Shanghai Institute of Design, Shanghai, China.

Her work in the service industry as waitress/bar-tender/kitchen porter remain a large part of her practice.

 
Kindly supported by the Irish Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary 2021