within the veins, acrylic & oil on canvas 48”x32”, 2024
Tremor in the Gate, rendered model 18’x11’, 2024
Eden, Acrylic on canvas, 34”x72”
Ceremony, 60”x67”
Portal in the Foyer, 2021, 72”x84”
As Far as The Eye can See 20”x24”
Seeking the Stag, 80”x30”
Outstretched to Greet You, 24”x20”
Artist’s Statement:
Liam O’Rourke (b. 1998, Los Angeles, CA) engages in a multidisciplinary practice that interrogates material, memory, and meaning. Drawing from his Korean and Irish ancestry and an upbringing between Los Angeles and Corpus Christi, he examines the fluidity of cultural identity, the weight of inherited traditions, and the spaces where belief systems converge and fracture. His work—spanning painting, sculpture, and design—navigates the intersections of industrial precision and meditative mark-making, often blurring the line between object and artifact.
Educated in Industrial Design at ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, O’Rourke employs fabrication techniques, prototyping, and rigorous material exploration as conceptual tools, repurposing methodologies of production and craft to evoke personal and collective histories. His approach to color is deeply intuitive, informed by both the charged palettes of religious iconography and the subdued, weathered tones of the built environment. Gesture and structure exist in tension—repetitive, contemplative strokes unfold across surfaces, mirroring the rhythms of breath and devotion.
At the core of his practice is an investigation into spirituality—how belief manifests in material form, how objects and symbols accrue power, and how the sacred and the mundane collapse into one another. Through layered compositions and iterative construction, O’Rourke seeks to articulate a visual language that is both grounded and ephemeral, inviting viewers into a space of reflection, ambiguity, and quiet revelation.
He lives and works in Los Angeles.