Kate O'Shea
Artist Bio
Kate O’ Shea is a socially-engaged artist who works across printmaking, archiving, large-scale installation, performance, and publishing. Recent work includes “Revolutionary Archivists” (2024), commissioned by the Bothy Project and Community Land Scotland. In this project, Kate collaborated with community leaders from the 1997 Isle of Eigg buy-out and the 2001 Govanhill Baths 140-day occupation to create a series of silk scarves and jackets, showcased in the “Where We Stand” exhibition by Community Land Scotland and Travelling Gallery.
The book How Much Is Enough? Kate O’ Shea & The Just City Residency, was published in 2023 by Half Letter Press, Common Ground and Create. The publication reflects on Kate’s embedded practice at the intersection of art and activism, focusing on her two-year residency in Studio 468, St. Andrews Community Centre in Dublin 8. A key project during this residency was Networks of Solidarity which she co-organised with writer and researcher Enya Moore. The online series connected place-based struggles through story-telling between communities in Dublin 8 to Gadigal Country (Sydney, Australia).
Kate is co-founder of the transdisciplinary collective, Broken Fields, with Aideen O’ Donovan, Enya Moore and Louise Harrington; co-creator of the newspaper Gravity Express with Dr Ciaran Smyth (Vagabond Reviews); co-founder of independent publishing house Durty Books with Victoria Brunetta; and co-founder of The People’s Kitchen (2015), supported by the Artist In Community Scheme (Create). Kate is a member of Apartheid-Free Arts, PRAXIS Artist’s Union and Community Action Tenants Union (CATU).
Instagram: @kateosheaartist
Membership: Studio 
