Eva O’Leary graduated from Yale University’s masters of Fine Art program in 2016 and received a BFA from California College of the Arts in 2012. O’Leary is a recent winner of the Outset Unseen Exhibition Fund, which resulted in an exhibition at Foam in April 2019. She was the recipient of the Hyères Festival Photographie Grand Prix in 2018, The Vontobel Contemporary Photography Prize in 2017, and was named a Foam Talent in 2014. Her work has been featured in a range of publications, including ArtForum, Aperture, 1000 Words and The New Yorker. Her work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows both within the United States and abroad, including the CAFA Art Museum (Beijing), LTD Los Angeles (LA), Villa Noailles (Hyeres, France), l’Atelier Néerlandais (Paris), Benaki Museum (Athens), and Aperture Foundation (New York).
About ‘Happy Valley’:
“I grew up in a small town in central Pennsylvania nicknamed Happy Valley. Much of my work is based on personal experiences and observations of this culture. This body of work in many ways was a reflection of my teen years, it draws from my upbringing to explore the relationship between fantasy and power”.
Through attractive and colorful images, O’Leary gives us a personal insight into the memories of the place she grew up in. Happy Valley is the reconstruction of that environment, enhanced through staged photography that captures the viewer’s attention.
