Hillel O’Leary is a sculptor, installation artist, professor, and multidisciplinary designer living and working in Providence, RI. His work has been recognized nationally and internationally. Hillel has recently conducted research in the fields of site-specific installation and sculpture in the U.S. national park system, and in cultural sites in Italy and Spain. He is currently co-developing a series of audience-focused public works that expand access to decolonized history-making, while creating new pathways connecting kids to art and artists. Hillel is also an art community collaborator, creative director, and project facilitator. He is an active partner with several local non-profit art organizations including the Outsider Collective, Providence Children’s Museum, Downcity Design, and the Wurks, a collective he has helped lead since 2011. Hillel is currently teaching in the Industrial Design department at RISD.
Published on May 19th, 2022. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
I'm currently excited about gaining additional insight into why I do the things I do, while uncovering more useful visual language to convey a sense of self-rooted in precarity and upheaval. I'm also excited about exploring new technical skills, creating more cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary partnerships, and making more work across media that allow for a greater sense of storytelling, inclusion and access, while still being personally and technically challenging. I'm asking a lot of myself, and I'm hoping to deliver.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
I think I've been facing some of the same challenges that many in my position have faced. I've been struggling with a culture or runaway individualism and "productivity" that eschews acts of community and care for acts of rugged heroic individualism and sacrifice. This is especially true in my experience teaching as an adjunct in a world-class art school. The inequality in power and wealth, and the lack of fundamental change keeps a working class of faculty members scrambling for basic safety and security, while also trying to provide a good quality education, and produce work in the hope that they might gain better traction. The pandemic has heightened all of these concerns, and has created larger rifts between those who have power, and those who do not. The pandemic has given us time to reflect on how we might serve our educators, our artists, and our communities better, but we can't do these things if we keep pushing ahead and trying to be "normal", or if we keep trying to make "progress". Things need to change.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
At the moment, I don't have much studio time at all. I've been too busy trying to pay my bills at work. The beginning of the year led to some great advances in what i've been working on, but the last half of the year has been a struggle. Part of this is totally natural, and I'm glad that I have produced enough that I can think about how i can show the body of work that I've created over the past year. I miss being in studio, but I'm grateful to have some time to enter my work into shows and galleries until I have more time to produce more work.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
The most important resources I’ve found recently center on community-building and collaboration. These include local and regional artist collectives that I belong to, that have helped me to share ideas, images, and physical spaces with other creative people. One of these collectives is the Wurks, a Providence-based artist collective that provides studio space, shop space, a gallery, and is comprised of a community of artists at all stages of their careers and from many walks of life. Another regional group is the Northeast Sculpture Collective, which has become a good way for 3D artists in the northeastern U.S. to support one another, share information and studio images, and ask questions about the current technical, conceptual, and educational issues facing artists navigating a less connected world.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
This year I’m very much looking forward to reconnecting with national and international residency and exhibition opportunities. I’ve also been conducting research and scouting locations for more site-specific installations, and potential solo shows. I’ve been delving more deeply into my identity as a part of Jewish Diaspora culture in America, and I’m feeling confident that there are important stories to share in order to keep this identity relevant and to keep it from being forgotten. This research is currently taking the form of finding cultural sites, and exploring multiple ways to incorporate their images through digital and traditional means, including photogrammetry, digital fabrication, machining, casting and painting.
What are you currently excited about in your art practice?
I'm currently excited about gaining additional insight into why I do the things I do, while uncovering more useful visual language to convey a sense of self-rooted in precarity and upheaval. I'm also excited about exploring new technical skills, creating more cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary partnerships, and making more work across media that allow for a greater sense of storytelling, inclusion and access, while still being personally and technically challenging. I'm asking a lot of myself, and I'm hoping to deliver.
What were some of the challenges you faced last year as an artist? Was your work/ art practice affected by the pandemic this year, if so how?
I think I've been facing some of the same challenges that many in my position have faced. I've been struggling with a culture or runaway individualism and "productivity" that eschews acts of community and care for acts of rugged heroic individualism and sacrifice. This is especially true in my experience teaching as an adjunct in a world-class art school. The inequality in power and wealth, and the lack of fundamental change keeps a working class of faculty members scrambling for basic safety and security, while also trying to provide a good quality education, and produce work in the hope that they might gain better traction. The pandemic has heightened all of these concerns, and has created larger rifts between those who have power, and those who do not. The pandemic has given us time to reflect on how we might serve our educators, our artists, and our communities better, but we can't do these things if we keep pushing ahead and trying to be "normal", or if we keep trying to make "progress". Things need to change.
What does a typical day in the studio (or wherever you're making work) look like for you these days? What time of day are you at your studio, what are your studio must haves (ex: music, coffee, tools, etc), and what does your creative space look like?
At the moment, I don't have much studio time at all. I've been too busy trying to pay my bills at work. The beginning of the year led to some great advances in what i've been working on, but the last half of the year has been a struggle. Part of this is totally natural, and I'm glad that I have produced enough that I can think about how i can show the body of work that I've created over the past year. I miss being in studio, but I'm grateful to have some time to enter my work into shows and galleries until I have more time to produce more work.
What resources for artists have you found helpful that may be helpful for other artists?
The most important resources I’ve found recently center on community-building and collaboration. These include local and regional artist collectives that I belong to, that have helped me to share ideas, images, and physical spaces with other creative people. One of these collectives is the Wurks, a Providence-based artist collective that provides studio space, shop space, a gallery, and is comprised of a community of artists at all stages of their careers and from many walks of life. Another regional group is the Northeast Sculpture Collective, which has become a good way for 3D artists in the northeastern U.S. to support one another, share information and studio images, and ask questions about the current technical, conceptual, and educational issues facing artists navigating a less connected world.
What in your art career are you looking forward to in the upcoming year? Do you have any specific goals or projects in mind?
This year I’m very much looking forward to reconnecting with national and international residency and exhibition opportunities. I’ve also been conducting research and scouting locations for more site-specific installations, and potential solo shows. I’ve been delving more deeply into my identity as a part of Jewish Diaspora culture in America, and I’m feeling confident that there are important stories to share in order to keep this identity relevant and to keep it from being forgotten. This research is currently taking the form of finding cultural sites, and exploring multiple ways to incorporate their images through digital and traditional means, including photogrammetry, digital fabrication, machining, casting and painting.
Find Hillel O'Leary on Instagram