Biography
Helen O'Sullivan (also published as Helen Macha O'Sullivan) is an Irish fine-art printmaker whose practice centres on mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing) and reductive woodblock. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin in 2019 with a first-class-honours BA in Fine Art Print, and following graduation held graduate-award residencies at Graphic Studio Dublin, of which she is a member, and at Black Church Print Studio. In 2024 she received the Arts Council of Ireland's Agility Award.
O'Sullivan was among the printmakers selected for Kanreki, the exhibition mounted by Graphic Studio Dublin to mark its sixtieth anniversary (the studio was founded in 1960). In Japan the kanreki — a sixtieth birthday — is symbolised by the colour red, and every artist in the exhibition incorporated red into a print. The show was presented at The Model in Sligo and at Graphic Studio Gallery in Dublin, and travelled to the International Mokuhanga Conference held in Nara, Japan, in 2021.
Her work has also been shown at the Royal Hibernian Academy's annual exhibitions, and in 2024 she was selected for the Mason Hayes & Curran print commission, run in collaboration with Graphic Studio Dublin.
Key Facts
- Nationality
- 🇮🇪Ireland
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
- Works Indexed
- 1
Frequently Asked Questions
Helen O'Sullivan (also published as Helen Macha O'Sullivan) is an Irish fine-art printmaker whose practice centres on mokuhanga (Japanese water-based woodblock printing) and reductive woodblock. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin in 2019 with a first-class-honours BA in Fine Art Print, and following graduation held graduate-award residencies at Graphic Studio Dublin, of which she is a member, and at Black Church Print Studio. In 2024 she received the Arts Council of Ireland's Agility Award.
Helen O'Sullivan's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.