Danielle O’Brien

Danielle O’Brien is a Brisbane based painter and sculptor. Drawing on influences ranging from Victorian freak shows, to fairytales and Monty Python, Danielle O’Brien creates intense and ambiguous portraits of imaginary female subjects. Her work has been variously described as strangely-beautiful, feminine, eccentric, delicate, bizarre and old-world. Working mainly in oil and watercolour paintings and miniature relief sculptures, Danielle’s work is often a blend of the sublime and the absurd.

Danielle’s latest imagery explores the distinctively feminine practice of ‘dressing up’ and deals with notions of childhood role-play and make-believe. The eyes are an important motif and function as the proverbial ‘window to the soul’, while elaborate headdresses and objects piled on her subjects’ heads serve as a metaphor for the baggage that we as adults carry around on our shoulders.