photograph Bryan O’Brien
My Work
My paintings emerge from a connection with objects that carry memory - Medieval Irish book shrines, African masks, Megalithic stone carvings, fragments of forgotten rituals. Images of my work, on this website, span four decades - organized into ongoing series that explore different aspects of this conversation between past and present:
The Artefacts Project (Since 1997)
These paintings and drawings respond to ancient Irish artefacts —croziers, bells, shrines—held in the National Museum of Ireland. It is a reconnection with Ireland’s indigenous visual culture by means of contemporary painting and drawing. Works from this series have been exhibited at the National Museum and the Hunt Museum in Limerick.
Hidden Tribe (Since 1987)
These works explore the suppressed spiritual traditions of post-colonial cultures, through imagining a Hidden Tribe and its indigenous ways of seeing the world.
The Shadow (Since 1985)
This series confronts the darkness in the human. These works have been exhibited in museums and galleries in Ireland, England, Denmark, and the Czech Republic.