Susan O’Doherty - 2 Girls and a Bomb: paintings and sculptures

Current Exhibitions

10 July

Written By Issy Le B

Susan O’Doherty

2 Girls and a Bomb: paintings and sculptures

17 July – 7 August 2025

Art Atrium 48 is proud to present 2 Girls and a Bomb: Painting and Sculptures, a compelling exhibition by Susan O’Doherty that explores the psychological and political tensions of an increasingly digitised and fractured world. These paintings and sculptures are set in enclosed domestic environments, our safe and supposedly private spaces. With the threat of nuclear warfare, climate change and now AI rapidly changing the world, the work focuses on our interaction with technology, deep fakes and virtual reality; and the concerns, anxieties and uncertainty of what lies ahead. Everyone’s data is being collected by tech corporations. We are constantly surveilled, photographed, filmed, scanned, bugged, stalked and marketed to. George Orwell’s 1984 is more prescient than ever today. These works are a representation of a digitised, politically divided, and chaotic world we find ourselves in where we’re more and more isolated and distanced from each other.

“These paintings and sculptures are set in enclosed domestic environments, our safe and supposedly private spaces. With the threat of nuclear warfare, climate change and now AI rapidly changing the world, the work focuses on our interaction with technology, deep fakes and virtual reality; and the concerns, anxieties and uncertainty of what lies ahead.

We are coming up to the 80th anniversary of the first atomic bomb ‘Little Boy’ dropped on Hiroshima 6th August 1945 and the second ‘Fat Man’ dropped on Nagasaki 3 days later. Both bombs killed approximately 220,000. Though the Cold War is over the existential threat of annihilation is still very real. The technology that defines our progress is also capable of destroying us.

At first radio brought the world into our home, then mid-century TV radically reshaped our world, becoming the primary source of information and entertainment, influencing social norms and behaviours. Now we have the smart phone in our pockets, a super computer with instant access to unlimited information and to each other. Everyone is a photographer, broadcaster and potential influencer. As Andy Warhol said “famous for 15 minutes”. Yet despite this, we’re losing the art of personal connection and interaction. Some people are having more intense relationships with algorithms that have no soul, empathy, hope, sense of loss, memory, touch or love. Rates of depression, anxiety, isolation and loneliness are skyrocketing in young people. On a bus or train you feel alone - virtually every single person glued to their phone.

Everyone’s data is being collected by tech corporations. We are constantly surveilled, photographed, filmed, scanned, bugged, stalked and marketed to. George Orwell’s 1984 is more prescient than ever today.

These paintings and sculptures are a representation of this digitized, politically fractured and chaotic world we find ourselves in where we’re more and more isolated and distanced from each other.” — Susan O’Doherty

About the Artist

Susan O’Doherty is a contemporary Australian multidisciplinary artist. Her practice includes painting, mixed media construction, textiles, sculpture, video and photography, creating provocative, ironic, thought provoking and at times sinister works questioning gender roles and the portrayal of women in popular culture and history – identity, consumerism, violence and memory. Born in Brisbane Australia in 1960, O’Doherty studied film prosthetics and make-up in Sydney, beginning her early career in film and theatre. In the mid 90’s she was painting and working as an artist. In the early 2000s she expanded her practice to include mixed media assemblage, sculpture and collage, appropriating and recycling everyday materials, textiles, household implements and found objects.

Susan exhibited 450 painted portraits of visual arts practitioners ‘900 Eyes, Domestic Lives’ in 2008-9 at Manly, Tweed River and Maitland regional galleries. She participated in Macquarie University Gallery’s ‘Reimag(in)ing SomaSex’ and in ‘Diarama’ at Wollongong Art Gallery. In 2014-17, she collaborated on major Regional Gallery Touring Exhibition ‘Moving House’ with artist husband Peter O'Doherty, incorporating assemblage and painting of the various rooms of the houses that she lived in as a child. Marking the centenary of the Anzac Gallipoli landing, the artist participated in commemorative exhibitions ‘Contemporary Gallipoli’, ‘Your Friend the Enemy’ and ‘Wept, Wait and Be Worthy’ at Macquarie University Gallery, S.H. Ervin Gallery, The Blue Mountains Cultural Centre and regional galleries in Bathurst, Goulburn, Cowra, Hawkesbury and Grafton NSW. Her exhibition ‘Pinned to the Wall’, looking at sexual politics, domestic violence and consumerism travelled to Ballarat, Sydney and Yarrila Arts and Museum Coffs Harbour 2017-2018. The following year Susan exhibited at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre for ‘Everyday Madonna’, focusing on contemporary depictions of the Madonna and Child. In 2021/2022 a series of textile sculptural heads referring to hospital staff was included in a group exhibition ‘A Conspicuous Object - the Maitland Hospital’ at Maitland Regional Art Gallery; and in 2023 at NSW Health Infrastructure as part of their ‘Elevate Exhibition’. Susan also participated in Macquarie University Art Gallery’s ‘Vibrations in Australian Drawing’ group exhibition in 2023 and in 2024 for ‘Femme-Maison: Imagined Boundaries’ exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the women’s Art Movement in Australia and Macquarie University’s 60th anniversary. In 2025 she was commissioned by Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre to create textile and wooden sculptures for the exhibition 'Giving Voice: Celebrating 50 years of the Liverpool Women's Health Centre' at Yellamundie - Liverpool Library and Art Gallery; and was included in 25 Moments, a group exhibition at Gosford Regional Gallery to mark their 25th anniversary.

O’Doherty was selected for the 8th Beijing International Art Biennale in 2019, also participating that year in the Art Central Hong Kong Art Fair. Susan has been a finalist in the Glover Art Prize, Portia Geach Memorial Award, Salon Des Refuses, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Redlands Art Award, Mosman Art Prize, the National Still Life Award and KAAF art prize. Her works are in the collections of the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the City of Sydney, Smorgon Collection and Regional Art Galleries throughout NSW. The artist currently lives and works in Sydney Australia.