This new exhibition of paintings by Hughie O’Donoghue, Time, Tide and the Memory of the House, take as their subject matter abandoned homes, situated in the landscape of Mayo where he spent much of his youth, and which have personal significance or resonance. In this exhibition the artist looks at buildings as places of memory, using a semi abstract style, combined with rich expressionist colours and texture.
The exhibition will feature paintings on wood panels, made in the manner of note book pages and incorporating drone photography of the buildings together with hand written notes, gleaned from the 1911 census, about the people who lived in these houses. It will also feature a group of oil paintings, developed from these panels.
In the Time and Tide series, O’Donoghue revisits Inis Oirr and the wreck of the naval trawler The Plassy. Here he has produced massive and dramatic pieces connected to The Plassy and this time the works are painted on tarpaulin.
Hughie O'Donoghue was born in 1953 in Manchester, England but his mother was born in the Gaeltacht of County Mayo in Ireland where O'Donoghue learnt traditional stories and experienced the landscape of the family home. He has a house in Kilkenny. He lives and works in Erris, Co. Mayo and London.
Hughie O'Donoghue has been exhibiting internationally, in solo and group exhibitions, since 1982, gaining a reputation as one of the leading painters of his generation.
O’Donoghue’s artistic credentials are underpinned by his MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 1982 and residencies at the National Gallery in London, and St. John's College, Oxford. In 2005 he received an Honorary Doctorate from the National University of Ireland.
His work is featured in many private and public collections including: The Hugh Lane, IMMA, The Art Gallery of South Australia, the Ashmolean Museum, The British Museum, Den Haag Gemeentemuseum, National Gallery (UK), the IWM and Yale Center for British Art.
Exhibition hours: Mon - Sat: 10am - 5pm: Sun 2 - 5pm. Admission is free, work available for purchase.
