Irean Olier Oakley
Irean Olier Oakley is a New England native who now lives and works on Nantucket Island. She received her BFA from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford in 1991 and has been working and exhibiting her representational sculpture in bronze, wood and marble ever since.
She has studied with several important sculptors of international renown and has spent many summers studying art in Pietrasanta, Italy and most recently at “The Center for American Sculpture” in Brookgreen Gardens, S.C. focusing on the challenging difficulties of base relief.
Since creating her first sculptures in 1985, she has sought to convey the many roles of modern woman. Her works, whether it be sculpture in the round, base relief or portraiture, seem to capture a reflective “moment in time”. Her figures are delicately modeled, yet have a strong sense of volume, rhythm and surface animation. The pensive female figures convey an inner state of woman and a depth of relationships between mother and child.