Eilis O’Connell was born in Derry Northern Ireland in 1953, she studied at Crawford School of Arts Cork and the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston and was granted research fellowships at The British School in Rome and MoMA PS1, New York. Her work has been shown at the Venice, Paris and Sao Paolo Biennales and at the Guggenheim Museum in Venice; and can be found in key public locations in London, Cardiff, Newcastle, Bristol, Wolverhampton, Southampton, Milton Keynes, Dublin, Belfast, Dundalk, Mallow and Cork. Her private commissions include Lismore Castle, Ireland, London Docklands, Cass Sculpture Foundation, Chatsworth, Antony House, England. She is a founder director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, a former member of the Arts Council of Ireland, a member of Aosdána, and the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts.

Eilis O’Connell explores a plethora of materials and processes in her work. She hoards found objects such as discarded agricultural tools and dairy vessels, which may eventually find their way into her sculpture or become an inspiration for a form or texture. She teases the most extraordinary forms out of various materials from stone and rubber to steel cord, sheet metals, glass, and plaster to casting bronze. O’Connell looks to archaeology, architecture, and geometry, in addition to smaller objects and materials, for beginnings to both her large and small works. These may be vast or a mere pinpoint on the landscape.