Life-based conceptual art, performative drawing. (b. Los Angeles 1941.) Raised in an international community in post-war Japan. Lived in Europe for 25 years (Paris, Berlin, Italy), returned to New York in 2010 and back to Venice, Italy in 2019. Direct and minimal aspects of Japanese aesthetic practices have had a strong influence on her work. She currently lives in Venice and works extensively internationally. O’Hara met John Cage as a 20 year old art student in 1961 and his thinking and music afforded a half-century of inspiration. She attempts to work live in the present, tracking the movement of the hands of people as they engage in life activities. Movement is her main subject and she tracks the trajectory of live movement – in real time – with pencils – drawing simultaneously with both hands. 

Represented in permanent collections: The British Museum, Metropolitan Museum, National Gallery, Hammer Museum, Kupferstichkabinett Berlin, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile, et al. Represented by Mitchell Algus Gallery in New York, Brigitte March International Contemporary in Stuttgart, Germany. 

O’Hara has drawn / performed LIVE TRANSMISSIONs on five continents, since 1989 participating in international performance art festivals in Asia, Europe and the US. She has received grants from the Gottleib Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Lee Krasner Award for lifetime achievement, Milton and Sally Avery Award, Fessenden Foundation fellowship. 

O’Hara teaches master classes in drawing based on fundamental scribbles. 

Lives and works internationally. 

Her new website is an overview, an archival perspective on 60+ years of work, completed in December 2020. 

www.MorganOHara.art  www.handwritingtheconstitution.com