Orla Kane

Orla Kane

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Degree: Ba (Hons) Painting and Printmaking
University: The Glasgow School of Art
Graduation Year: 2021

New Blood Art Commentary

Using colour as a formidable tool for communication, Orla Kane brings us picturesque integrity influenced by the Scottish landscape that surrounded her formative years. These organic washes portray the twin environments of domestic comfort and the bleak outdoors in a beautiful low fidelity. Wielding the power of perspective, she is able to bring forth the hidden narratives behind inanimate objects and utilise her strong roster of mixed materials to depict her subjects as ethereal masses.

Artist Statement

I rely on the sentimental and poetic values of landscapes, creating pools of memories informed from both experiences and the imaginary. Bodies of land and water escape the boundaries of the field and are suspended through soft ambiguous forms. These sentiments are expanded like metaphors through paint and gently collide on raw and prepared surfaces.

Paintings act as vessels, holding opportunities for reflection, longing and contemplating the self in an environment, whether it be submerged in a warm bath or alone in a vast field. These moments allow dreamy escapist philosophies to seep into my work and build a narrative around rural communities informed by my upbringing in the Scottish Borders.

Solo Exhibitions

(2022) Daisy Chains, Stallan-Brand, Glasgow

Group Exhibitions

(2023) SSA 130 Years Annual Show, The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh

(2022) Salon Des Refusés, The Tub, London

(2022) Perishable, The Glasgow Project Room, Glasgow

(2022) Immediate Forms, The Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock

(2022) Tangible/Intangible, The Haberdashery, Glasgow

(2022) New Mythologies, Lunchtime Gallery, Glasgow

Competitions, Prizes & Awards

(2021) Visual Arts Scotland Graduate Showcase 2021 Shortlisted Graduate Award

(2022) Paint Box art classes SSA 130 Annual Show