This lecture explores the artist’s studio as both a physical space and a psychological landscape, tracing its evolution through key historical and modernist examples. Grounded in Eamon O'Kane’s ongoing research and artistic practice, the talk focuses particularly on Edvard Munch’s studios at Ekely, situating them within a wider constellation of iconic creative environments. Case studies include Claude Monet’s studio and garden at Giverny, the Bauhaus Meisterhäuser in Dessau, Eileen Gray’s house in the south of France, Francis Bacon’s studio and Per Kirkeby’s studio on the island of Læsø. Through these examples, the lecture examines how studios shape artistic thinking, embody personal mythologies, and function as architectures of imagination.
Eamon O'Kane is an Irish artist whose practice explores the intersections of architecture, memory, landscape, and social space. Working across painting, drawing, installation, film, photography, printmaking, sculpture, writing and socially engaged practice, his work often draws on modernist architecture, art and design. He is particularly known for his installation environments and his paintings of iconic buildings as well as for projects that investigate intergenerational storytelling, ecology, and the ethics of care. O'Kane is Professor at the Art Academy at KMD and has exhibited widely across Europe, The USA and Asia. He recently recieved a Fubright Alumni Award for exhibtions in the USA and Ireland.