About
Ursula Halpin is an Irish-born, Australian-based artist, writer and curator working on Nukunu and Kaurna Yarta in South Australia. Her multidisciplinary practice spans glass, textiles, sculpture and installation, situated within a critical research framework that engages with the legacies of religious institutions, Irish and Australian colonisation, and the separation of families under systems of power and control.
Halpin’s artworks often incorporate lace-inspired glass and crochet-like textile objects, invoking metaphors of repair, suturing and the body as site of memory and trauma. Her studio research investigates the “speaking subject” via auto-ethnographic and feminist phenomenological approaches, addressing the fragmented lives of women whose stories have been locked away.
In 2016 she graduated with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (First Class Honours) from the University of South Australia, where she also received the Chancellor’s Letter of Commendation and an Academic Excellence Award for Teaching and Learning, UniSA Creative (formally EASS). In her professional roles she has combined studio, curatorial, leadership and community-art practice. Since 2019 she has served as Gallery Director and Cultural Arts Coordinator for Port Pirie Regional Council, developing strategic arts programming, exhibitions, public art and cultural festivals across the Mid North of South Australia. Her leadership in securing major public and philanthropic investment has advanced the region’s cultural capacity, supported artist development, and expanded opportunities for youth and community engagement through the arts.
Halpin also publishes catalogue essays and texts and presents as a guest lecturer and speaker on topics of material culture, feminist theory and the politics of care. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with institutions such as the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery / Dark Mofo, the Ian Potter Museum of Art (Melbourne), JamFactory (Adelaide), Canberra Glassworks (ACT), National Glass Gallery (Wagga, Wagga), Ireland Glass Biennial (Dublin, Ireland), Singaplural (Singapore), Bullseye Gallery, (Portland USA).