Biography

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Dervla O'Flaherty is an Irish artist working with paint, paper and wood. Her work explores the links between myth, place and the unknown.

 

Dervla graduated from the National College of Art & Design, Dublin (NCAD) in 2012 with a BA (hons) in Fine Art Painting & Art History. She completed postgraduate studies in Fine Art at Cyprus College of Art, Paphos (CCA) in 2014. As 'place' and 'space' are integral concepts in her work, Dervla travels frequently as possible for research and creative projects.

 

Dervla has undertaken projects as an artist-in-residence in Ireland, India, Iceland, Cyprus, Hungary and Armenia. She co-founded and managed a successful series of wild art events in Budapest called 'Vad Art Kiallitas' in 2017-2018. She is currently working on the research stage of a large ongoing series of artworks 'Otherworld Problems’. Recent projects include a residency at the Institute for Contemporary Art, Yerevan (ICA) in 2024,  an upcoming solo exhibition at the Dillon gallery, Culurlann, Belfast and Cill Rialaig Arts Centre, Kerry in 2025, researching a new painting series in Malta with support from Culture Moves Europe and the Goethe Institute, appointed Bridge Guard Resident in Slovakia in 2026.

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Artist Statement

I am a visual artist engaged in exploring the concept of 'the otherworld' as depicted in myth and folktales, using it as a lens to understand and interpret our experience of reality. ​My work connects themes from Irish and Indo-European mythology to contemporary philosophy and psychology, investigating the unknown, social and physical structures, and the self.

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My practice is extremely process led. Layering plays a pivotal role both physically through techniques like glazing, cutting, carving, and overlapping materials and also conceptually, with layers of meaning and unseen worlds interwoven and overlayed. The work itself is layered, lurid, multi levelled, process-driven paintings, forming ongoing overlapping series of artworks.

 

Akin to poetry, certain types of art allow access to the unconscious. My painting is a deliberate reordering of known elements into wild unknown places where it’s possible to discover new worlds and new meaning. My current painting series ‘Otherworld Problems’ explores access points and entrances in myth and memory, which includes building a visual lexicon of maps, doorways, windows, wells and rabbit holes. Anything could happen, said the poet C.D. Wright, in the strange cities of the mind.

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