Tom O’Dea is an artist who works with mixed-media sculpture and social practice to explore ways how different forms of knowledge impact upon our ways of acting and being the world. His work interrogates the political implications of knowledge production, practices of computation and organisation in contemporary society. He has exhibited nationally and internationally and has curated work that examines technological materialities and the relationship between technology and society.
Tom completed a visual art practice-based PhD in TCD in 2019 for the exhibition Unrepresentable: A Séance for Pierre Méchain. He holds Master’s in Digital Media in the Huston School of Film & Digital Media and a degree in Mechanical Engineering from UCD.
Tom is a lecturer in Sculpture and Expanded Practice at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin. He co-chairs the Network Ecologies research theme at CONNECT - Ireland's SFI Centre for future networks at Trinity College. He is also a member of the Orthogonal Methods Group (OMG), an artist-research group and is one of the organisers of Dublin Art and Technology Association (DATA).
Selected Output
Forthcoming
10/24 DATA.BASE Memory, Loss - BASE, Dublin
11/24 Quantum Frequencies Roundtable - Stroom, Den Haag
2024
/24 Department of Embedded Knowledge – Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven
4/24 Apocalypse Anxieties - Luan Gallery, Athlone, Ireland
2023
12/23 Counter-Infrastructures: Art & Activism Symposium - NCAD Gallery, Dublin
10/23 DATA at Alternating Current – The Complex, Dublin
10/23 Tírdreacha/Krajobrazy/Landschaften/مناظر الطبیعة (w/ Soria Reilly, Robert Skrzyński, Hilde Wollenstein, Yousef Anastas & Ibrahim Owais) - Dublin Digital Radio, Radio Kapital (Warsaw), Cashmere Radio (Berlin), Radio AlHara (Bethlehem)
6/23 It's easier to talk about [platform capitalism] when having food together – Kunstverein am Rosa Luxembourg Plaz, Berlin
2022
7/22 Two Channel Land (w/ Frank Sweeney) – Centre for Contemporary Art, Derry
3/22 Free Zone Transmissions (w/ Frank Sweeney) – Featuring: Jane Deasy, Colm Keady-Tabal, Dennis McNulty, Coilín O'Connell and Megan Hadfield, Dublin, Ireland
2021
6/21 One Zero Society – Goethe-Institut – Online (Moving Image w/ Mathias Riechertt)
2020
11/20 A fold in the map across which electrons jump – The Lab Gallery, Dublin
05/20 On Death Reading Group – Department of Ultimology – Online – (Guest Moderator)
03/20 Guest Lectures – Art & the Megacity, TCD; Art Practice as Research, Gradcam, TUDublin; Art & IoT, NCAD
2019
06/19 ASCEND Artist Strategies for Engaging in Data Politics Workshop - NCAD, Ireland
06/19 A Séance for Pierre Méchain - Visual, Carlow, Ireland
05/19 Unrepresentable: A Séance for Pierre Méchain - Unit1A, TCD, Dublin
01/19 Natural Capital Panel Discussion - Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
2018
10/18 Matters of Facts - Grazer Kunstverein & Institut für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Graz, Austria
09/18 A Séance for Pierre Méchain - NCAD Gallery, Dublin
2017
11/17 Self Portrait - National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin
10/17 1967-2017 - Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2016
04/16 SAMS_001 - The Width of Air - NYU, Shanghai, China
02/16 MSMS_001 - The Width of Air - Carter Rd, Mumbai, India
01/16 Totem - Canary Wharf, London, UK
2015
08/15 Drakaea - PifCamp, Soҫa, Slovenia
05/15 Materiality - University Gallery, NUIG, Galway, Ireland
04/15 Chatter - Annenberg Centre, PA, USA
Previous
11/14 Anthroposcene - Gallery of Photography, Dublin, Ireland
05/14 HyBrasil - Inis Oirr, Ireland
04/14 Representations - Gallery 126, Galway, Ireland
07/13 Field - Galway Arts Festival, Ireland
04/13 Chatter - Lorg Presents, Galway, Ireland
09/12 Context Structure - The Market House, Monaghan, Ireland
Awards & Other
/23 - Curator of DATA at Alternating Current
/23 - Where Nobody Owns included in forthcoming publication by Bob Grey.
/23 - Participant - Commoning & Radical Care Symposium
/22 - Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary Award
/22 - Arts Council Agility Award
/22 - A Place of Exchange - Shortlisted for Ardgillan CC Public Art Commission curated by Jennie Guy
/20 - Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary Award
/18 - Recipient of Visual & Performing Arts Fund award for A Séance for Pierre Méchain.
/15 - Materiality was cofunded by NUIG, TCD, UCC & RIA.
/14 - Recipient of Visual & Performing Arts Fund award for Chatter.
/13 - Chatter - Selected for the Dublin Art & Technology Association showcase of emerging talent.