Artist Biography

Esther O’Kelly is a visual artist working primarily in paint, exploring the intersection of landscape, abstraction, and storytelling. Her works respond to her native landscape, capturing movement, shifting perspectives, and the layered experiences we carry—whether in a single walk, a lifetime, or across generations. Her practice reflects on disorientation and discovery.

“My work is rooted in remembered landscapes — shaped not only by memory, but by emotional and active engagement with place. Through my practice, I explore what it means to lose your bearings, how disorientation can open up new ways of seeing and how getting lost might can be part of finding your way.”

A graduate of The National College of Art and Design, O’Kelly holds both a BDes and a BA (Hons), completed in 1998. She is a founding member and former vice-chair of Vault Artist Studios, a vibrant community of over 100 multidisciplinary artists. Her work has been exhibited widely, selected by independent curators for national and international group projects, and is held in private collections worldwide. She has also received support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, the British Council, and CCA x Jerwood. O’Kelly currently works from her studio in Belfast.