My practice explores drawing as a way of being, sensing and becoming.

Grounded in an embodied approach to art and the world, I work through drawing, performance and collaboration as ways of coming into presence.

Central to my practice is the lived moment—where body, materials and space co-create through movement, sensation and attention.

Drawing operates as a trace of presence—felt, sensed and lived.

Órla Bates is a visual artist from County Wexford, Ireland. She holds a BA in Fine Art (Printmaking) from Limerick School of Art and Design and a Higher Diploma in Art Education from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin.

Órla’s work has been selected for national, and international exhibitions include Drawing Experience, Drawing Research Network, Loughborough University, Sync Shift, Wexford Arts Centre, Wide Open Spaces (Wexford Arts Centre and Wexford County Council), Doorways and Windows (WexArts), RHA Annual Exhibition, Cairde Visual (Sligo), Halftone (The Library Project, Dublin), and Hang Tough Contemporary (Dublin). Internationally, her recent work has featured in Drawing Articulations: A Radical Drawing Symposium (Leeds School of Arts), Drawing in Relation (Drawing Research Network, Loughborough University, UK; curated by Arno Kramer), and Cotyledon (Cotyledon Projects, Los Angeles, CA).

Her practice has been supported by numerous awards, including the Artlink Bursary Award (2026, 2025, 2023, 2015, 2012), the Arts Council Professional Development Award (2021) and the Tyrone Guthrie Bursary Award from Wexford County Council.

She has participated in several artist residencies, including Blackbird Cultur Lab in Wexford 2025, Lodestar Contemporary in France, Belgium and Limerick (2021–2024), Tyrone Guthrie Centre, and Ballinglen Arts Foundation.

As well as being an artist Órla also works as an art educator and facilitator.