Biography

Lisa O'Brien (b.1967) is an artist based on the West Coast of Scotland. In the 80's she studied Expressive Arts at Brighton Polytechnic which included music composition, performance and sculpture. During this time she developed an interest in working with classical instruments and the voice, and exploring the whole spectrum of sounds they offered. After completing her degree she moved to in Milan, Italy where she studied Italian language.Much of her subsequent composition and performance work looked to push the boundaries of how instruments and language can be abstracted and juxtaposed to create an interpretation of an event or experience. Her work as a composer has been performed nationally at venues such as the British Music Information Centre, London, the National Geographic Building London and she won the Princes Trust Young Composers Award in 1992 with her piece Losing Gravity .

In 2004, after completing the first year of her MA Fine Art at Sheffield Hallam University, Lisa moved to Scotland where she complete her MFA at Grays School of Art, RGU in Aberdeen. She began to develop a fine art practice whcih stemmed from her interest in sound, the spoken word and how we experience time passing - duration. This has developed into video work and more recently in to working with drawing and photogravure prints from video stills in order to concentrate on precise moments in time more deeply.

Her work has been exhibited in Japan, Denmark,Canada, America amongst other countries. Next year she has a solo exhibition coming up at Rhueart in the Highlands.

Curriculum Vitae

Exhibitions and Residencies

Apr 12 Transition drawings, Rhueart, Nr Ullapool.

Oct 11 Solo Exhibition. Left Bank Gallery, Tarland. Aberdeenshire.

2011-12 Water Petal. Great Ormond Street Hospital, London

Sept 11 Sublime Film Festival, Inverness, IOTA

Sept 11 Uproot/Displace/Resettle. Heartwood. Installation. Perthshire.

Mar 10 Disturbance, Architectural Disorder curated by Launch Collaborative, OVADA

Oct 09 Artist’s residency Sound Scotland Festival, Left Bank Gallery, Tarland, Aberdeen.

Aug 09 Island Arc, Verracott, North Ronaldsay, Orkney.

Dec 08 Progressive Transformation, Limousine Bull, Aberdeen.

Mar 08 Nexus Communities, An Tobar, Mull.

Nov 07 Leeds International Film Festival 07. Pavillion, Leeds. Swing. 1

Sept –Oct 07 Sealladh 6. An Tuireann, Skye including work from the Nexus collaboration.

2006 - Axis Audio Gallery

Dec 2006 – May 2008 Single Track Road. Video. New Media Scotland. B-sides programme. Upgrade! International Festival, Toured to Belgrade, Boston, Vancouver, Paris, Melbourne, CCA, Glasgow.

June 07 Nexus, Limousine Bull, Aberdeen. Collaborative week long residency.

May 2006-Feb 2007 Disturbance. Sound installation. JIPB Cube Gallery. An Tuireann, Skye, May 2006. Jarnac, France and Grays School of Art, Aberdeen August 2006. Ichinomiya, Japan November 2006. Bovlingbjerg, Denmark, February 2007.

Education

2007 Master Fine Art (with Distinction). Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen

1994 Postgraduate Cert Education - Expressive Arts, Manchester Met University

1989-91 International Centre for Study of Italian Language and Culture, Milan, Italy

1989 Ba(Hons) Expressive Arts 2:1 (first in music) Brighton Polytechnic. Fine art and music.

Awards/Commissions

2011 Artists Award. Hi-arts. To create new work.

2009 Artists Award. Hi-Arts. To take part in SOUND Scotland festival residency.

2007 Visiting Artist in Japan for JIPB cube.

2006 Selected for Open Frequency on Axis and Axis Audio Gallery. Curated online programme presenting new developments in contemporary art.

2006 Scottish Arts Council. Artist of the Month.

2006 Artists Award. Hi-Arts. To make a video ‘The New Arrival

2005-7 Arts Humanities Research Council Bursary – for part time postgraduate study.

1992 Princes Trust European Vision – young composers award.

1992 Pepinieres European Award for young composers – shortlisted/runner up

Press/Publicity

2010 Hi-Arts - Visual Arts Spotlight

2009 Press and Journal