Outlandish – Owen de Forge

Outlandish is a meditation on the role of nature in the built environment. The artist looks closely at his immediate surroundings to see how nature is both marginalised and idealised in the way we design and shape our cities. Considering the city on the levels of community, wildlife habitat, archaeological site, and multinational corporate headquarters, he examines the way diverse interests interweave to create a uniquely strange environment, full of paradoxes.

The artist uses imagination and memory to explore these ideas in narratives inflected with dreams and nostalgia. He plays with the boundaries of the picture plane in paintings that mimic forms found in his surroundings. Figuration becomes a tool for navigating contradictory feelings of wonder, delight, fear, and alienation, while trying to balance the complexity of ecological and economic crises with the mundane realities of everyday life.

Rough construction materials are given the form of plants, defiantly growing against the constraints of the built environment.

About Owen de Forge
Owen de Forge is a visual artist living and working in Dublin. Working across painting, sculpture, drawing, and photography he creates dreamlike narratives exploring humanity’s complex relationship with nature and the built environment. Through his work he seeks imaginative pathways for human beings to rediscover positive relationships with nature, built on curiosity, playfulness, and respect.

Recent solo exhibitions include ‘Will we go look for a mole hole?’ curated by Sara Muthi (The Dean Art Studios, 2023), and ‘Twentysomething’ (Birr Theatre and Arts Centre (2021). Recent group exhibitions include ‘A painting show this Good Friday’ co-curated with Salvatore of Lucan (The Dean Art Studios, 2024), The Hennessy Craig Award Exhibition (RHA, 2022), and ‘You breathe differently down here’ curated by Amanda Coogan (Draíocht, 2022). Awards include The Hennessy Craig Award (Shortlisted, 2025, 2022), The Dean Art Studios Residency (2022), and the Visual Arts Bursary (2022) from the Arts Council of Ireland.