Associate Professor, Program Head of Sculpture and Director of Graduate Studies
Glass, Sculpture
Sharyn O’Mara
- Email: sharyn.omara@temple.edu
- Phone: 215-777-9128
- Office: Tyler 130J
- Website: www.sharynomara.com
Sharyn O’Mara is an artist and educator whose interdisciplinary works explore the marks of language and the language of marks. Her practice is comprised of drawing, sculpture, glass, printmaking and installation.
O’Mara’s current work involves reflections on empathy and longing while living in a media-possessed culture that so often feels devoid of intimacy and trust. Deeply connected to her dogs, in one body of mixed-media works, she works with the residue of their existence—nose prints, shed hair, cremains—taking otherwise overlooked materials and phenomena and giving them significance through intimate visual recording.
Her work has been widely exhibited in the United States and abroad. In fall 2017, she was the Georgette and Richard Koopman Distinguished Visiting Chair in Visual Arts at Hartford Art School, joining a long line of distinguished artists and scholars. Other select exhibition venues include Arkansas Art Center, Pilchuck Gallery, Heller Gallery, and the Museum of Art and Design in Tallinn, Estonia. Her work is in several public and private collections including Toledo Museum of Art, Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Minneapolis Institute of Art, Corning Museum of Glass, and the Dennis Alter Collection at Temple University.
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design, 1992
BA, George Washington University, 1988