EMILY O’LEARY
Purple Cake with Rat (2025)
Wool yarn, linen, cardboard, paper, Model Magic, glue
4.50 x 11.50 x 11.50 in
Courtesy Fountain House (New York, NY)
Emily was awarded a BFA in Sculpture from Massachusetts College of Art in her home state, and an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin. She believes that her artistic career can be traced back to a childhood obsession with drawing horses. Emily has an affinity for working in fiber and is attracted to its repetitive nature. For years she worked in embroidery, sewing samplers featuring people and animals. In 2019, inspired by images of antique hooked rugs, Emily taught herself how to rug hook in order to make rugs of her own. She learned from old books and since then, she has primarily used rug hooking to make artwork and has enjoyed traveling and meeting other rug hookers from different hooking traditions. Her work is usually figurative; much of it is about the relationship between humans and animals, and there are also themes representing women's work, domesticity, and labor in general.
FOUNTAIN HOUSE
NEW YORK, NY
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Founded by Fountain House in 2000, the Manhattan-based Gallery sells original artworks and collaborates with a wide network of artists, curators and cultural institutions. The Studio, located in Long Island City, is a collaborative workspace that furthers the professional practice of our artists. Embracing artists who are emerging or established, trained or self-taught, Fountain House Gallery cultivates artistic growth, makes a vital contribution to the New York arts community, and challenges the stigma surrounding mental illness.
All Fountain House Gallery artists are members of Fountain House, founded in New York City in 1948 with the belief that people living with mental illness can be active participants in their own and each other’s recovery. Every day, hundreds of members come to Fountain House to contribute their talents, learn new skills, access opportunities and forge friendships. Over the past seven decades, Fountain House has inspired the creation of hundreds of similar programs in 32 states and 34 countries that serve more than 100,000 people annually. In 2014, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation recognized Fountain House’s global reach and the efficacy of its evidence-based model with the prestigious Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.
Fountain House Studio is a dedicated studio space in Long Island City that provides member-artists with the resources, training, inspiration, and support they need to succeed in the highly competitive art world. Full-time access to the studio, where free art supplies are available, assists these artists in moving to a new level of creativity, expanding their marketable portfolios, and advancing their efforts to achieve broader name recognition and commercial success. At Fountain House Studio, artists living with mental illness work side by side with others in a collaborative setting that reduces isolation and fosters a supportive community.
Located in the Silks Building, one of the pre-eminent landmarks in Long Island City, the Studio offers individual workspaces to Fountain House Gallery artists on a rotating basis. The space is available to the larger Fountain House community during designated drop-in hours.
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702 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10019
HOURS
Monday Closed
Tuesday 12 - 6 PM
Wednesday 12 - 5 PM
Thursday 12 - 6 PM
Friday 12 - 6 PM
Saturday 1 - 7 PM
Sunday Closed
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P: 212.262.2756