Biography
Pádraic Reaney was born in Carraroe, Co. Galway in 1952. He studied Fine Art at Galway, Regional Technical College encouraged by the well-known sculptor Oisín Kelly and has been a full-time artist since leaving college. He painted for several years in Galway; later he built a studio in Moycullen, where he now lives and works. He has exhibited extensively in Ireland, Scotland and Wales and his work are in public and private collections in Ireland as well as in Europe, Canada, USA, Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Australia. His work is held in collections such as the Modern Irish Art Collection; Dublin Writers Museum, Ireland; Irish Embassy, London; Ireland’s Great Hunger Museum, Quinnipiac University, USA; Siena Art Institute, Italy; Urawa Wood-Cut Prints Association, Japan.
International Reputation
Reaney’s international reputation has grown over the years, and in particular, his work on The Táin and his interpretation of the legacy of An Gorta Mór/The Great Irish Famine has won him wide critical acclaim as a key figure in contemporary Irish visual arts. He represented Ireland in the XVIth Grand Prix International d’Arts Contemporain de Monte Carlo in 1982. A film was made of one of his exhibitions based on The Táin, which was R.T.É.’s entry in the Pan Celtic International Film Festival for 1988 – it was one of the three top films in the festival. In 1996 he was invited to Scotland by the North Ayrshire Council to undertake a series of exhibitions on the Isles and the West Coast of Scotland.
Work in Ireland
A founder member of Western Artists, Island Connection, and Drimcong Press (with Brian Bourke and Jay Murphy), Reaney was awarded the Pádraic Mac Con Midhe Prize at the Oireachtas in 1979 to make a series of etchings recording the rapidly disappearing thatched houses in Ros an Mhíl, Connemara. He later exhibited a series of photographs based on this work of the ruined cottages in Ros an Mhíl (1979-1983) at the Galway City Museum, July-October 2008. Reaney was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Galway Arts Centre in 1996 and served on the Board until 1999.
Reaney was commissioned to design the Liam Ó Flaherty Commemorative Garden on Inishmore, Aran and to create a piece of bronze sculpture for the garden which was unveiled by Minister Eamon Ó Cuív when the garden was officially opened. Also in 2006, Reaney curated the successful Project 06 Exhibition, The Irish Eye in the Kenny Gallery. In 2007 he curated The Oliver Gogarty 50th Anniversary Art Exhibition, at the Renvyle House Hotel.
His Lawrencetown piece, which was commissioned by the Galway County Council, is a seven- foot bronze piece depicting the story of Diarmaid and Gráinne. He was commissioned by the Galway Chamber of Commerce to design the Paddy Ryan Memorial Medal which was presented to the speaker at the first Paddy Ryan Memorial Lecture at NUI Galway in 2007. He has also had work commissioned from the Irish National Parks & Wildlife Service over the years. His work is in great demand for book covers and illustrations, and he has recently created a series of striking wall hangings done in the studio of V’Soske Joyce, now Dixons Carpets, Connemara.
I am delighted to be representing Ireland in this exhibition
The “Inter-Art” Foundation Aiud, Romania
present
Intercontinental Travelling Art Exhibition
CULTURAL IMPRESSIONS
100 artists – 100 countries – 6 continents
Welcome speach:
dr. Hirut Kassaw, Head of Addis Abeba Culture, Arts & Tourism Bureau
Presented by:
Tamerat Siltan, project coordinator
Stefan Balog, curator, president “Inter-Art” Foundation, Romania
Opening ceremony: January 26th, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Place: Ethiopian Academy of Sciences – Addis Abeba, Ethiopia
Group exhibition. Hamilton Gallery Sligo. 2021
Thank you so much for your mail artwork. They have received. International Mail Art Project Exhibition will be on 16 April – 16 May 2021 at time: 17.00pm in Istanbul/Turkey.
All artworks will be added to the archives to the Ministry of Education (MEB) .
You will get an invitation again.
Have a great day. Best wishes.
Müberra Bülbül
PO-MO III INTERNATIONAL POSTAL ART EVENT is held on behalf of Selcuk University Faculty of Fine Arts with the support of the Graphic Department.
All works exhibited will be included in the archive of Selcuk University Faculty of Fine Arts.
Aiud salutes Europe Day / Aiud greets Europe Day International Online International Exhibition. Romania.
Pádraic was invited to show in two exhibitions in Romania in 2018 he was the only Irish artist showing in the exhibitions.
International Biennial of small graphics
“INTER-ART 2018 Romania 2018
and
International Mail Art Exhibition “100” / Inter-Art Aiud 2018 Romania.
2018 represents an anniversary year for our country, celebrating 100 years from the union of the three Romanian provinces and setting up modern Romania. With this occasion, we propose this suggestive theme which can be approached by each artist in its own style. The „Inter-Art” Foundation pay special attention to everything that meant the formation of the multicultural segment during this century and the promotion of the ethnic values which means the cultural heritage with which we can promote a modern Romania, built on durable interethnic relations. We launched the invitation to artists from all over the world to send works on the proposed theme. 162 artists from 100 countries, 5 continents participated.
The image below is from the exhibition “100”/ Inter Art Aiud 2018 Romania.
A WORLD PREMIERE FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ART
”UNITED NATIONS – symbol of life, freedom & happiness”, an Intercontinental Online Art Exhibition dedicated to the 75th Anniversary of the United Nations.
This project was initiated and organized by the ”Inter-Art” Foundation from Aiud, Romania. It represents an absolute world premiere since, for the first time in history, artists from all the 193 Member States of the United Nations are gathered in a single, dedicated art exhibition. The event is held under the High Patronage of H.E. Klaus Werner Iohannis, President of Romania and it is supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania and the Romanian Cultural Institute.
For the moment the exhibition has an online exposure. If the conditions determined by the coronavirus pandemic allow, a physical exhibition will be organized at the United Nations headquarters in New York, next year.
This unique event pays a special tribute to the United Nations Anniversary, wishing to prove that through art we can create a better world – one of freedom and coexistence, of cooperation and understanding, and of unity between people, nations and cultures.
In the message sent on the occasion of the launching of the exposition, the President of Romania, H.E. Klaus Werner Iohannis, stated that << The exhibition inaugurated today is a symbolic fresco of our times, created in a context in which we need – more than ever – solidarity and understanding. […] Not by chance, the key factor that made this exhibition possible is the same as the one that motivated the UN action since its creation in 1945 and that guarantees the Organization’s success in demonstrating the ”art of unity” between nations on ahead: international cooperation, for the benefit of our citizens >>.
Stefan Balog, the project initiator and curator declared that: “A beautiful dream becomes reality with this project, unique in its own way. An achievement that fully defines the concept of the Inter-Art Foundation to unite all the nations of the world through art. We have always believed in this motto and in these 25 years since we have existed we have done our best to prove that the art and culture of a nation is the best ambassador”.
Details of the event can be seen on this link:
www.inter-art.ro/un2020/
The Press Office of the Inter-Art Foundation
New images of paintings I did while I was an artist in residence in the Hendrick Böll Cottage, Achill Island last August. I got a residency for August 2019. I wanted to do some work on the deserted village for my upcoming exhibition in the Kenny Art Gallery, Galway in October 2020
I would like to thank the Hendrick Böll Cottage committee of all the help and support while I was there. I got more work done than I expected and a lot more to do in the future.
Photos: L. Scott
Cumar – A Galway Rhapsody’ won the Best Documentary Award 2019 at the 9th Irish Film Festival London. In awarding the accolade, festival founder and director Kelly O’Connor predicted that Cumar would become a “long-standing document of the intrinsic essence and influence of Galway”.
Public Art in Lawrencetown
Diarmaid and Gráinne
Name of Artist: Pádraic Reaney
Materials Used: Cast Bronze and Limestone
Artist Statement:
From the day of the site visit, I was taken by the site. The peace and serenity of this small green space with its overhanging trees captured my imagination. We were told that there was a Leaba Diarmaid agus Gráinne (Diarmaid and Gráinne’s bed) in the area.
I could easily visualise Diarmaid and Gráinne, hiding in the forest, fleeing from Finn.
They have travelled a great distance on foot. It’s late. Gráinne is exhausted and they desperately need a safe place to sleep. They pause for a moment here under the sheltering branches of this protecting tree. I was very conscious of the positioning of the piece: that the tree would be incorporated in the overall design and the mood of the sculpture.
The reason I chose this subject was the connection of Diarmaid and Gráinne to the area. For many years I have worked on the story of the Táin Bó Cuailgne and other Irish tales and therefore this was an extension of my previous work.
Second Exhibition 2021
Thank you so much for your mail artwork.
International Mail Art Project Second Exhibition will be on September-October 2021 in Istanbul/Turkey.
All artworks will be added archives to the Ministry of Education (MEB).
Islands the Theme of Exhibition by Connemara Artist Pádraic Reaney
17th November 2021 Lorna Siggins
Sketchbooks with images recording island life and landscape over the last 30 years form the basis of a new exhibition by Connemara artist Pádraic Reaney.
Entitled Oileán, it comprises 49 paintings and graphics from Irish and Scottish islands and from Malta. The exhibition was opened by poet Joan McBreen in Galway’s Kenny Gallery late last week.
Reaney, who is from An Cheathrú Rua and lives near Moycullen, began the sketchbooks in the late 1980s when he was part of a group of local artists named the Island Connection.
That group, including John Behan, Vicki Crowley, Jay Murphy and Brendan Fitzsimons, travelled to several European islands including Malta, Tenerife and Inishbofin. Reaney later visited Scottish islands including Lewis and Mull.
As Reaney told Judy Murphy of The Connacht Tribune, he first explored the transience of existence in 1979 when he created a series of prints of cottages that were ruined or disintegrating in and around the fishing harbour of Ros-a-Mhíl in south Connemara.
He took the same approach to housing on the island of Inis Áirc, close to Inishbofin, off the north Connemara coast in 2002.
The last 23 residents left Inis Áirc in 1960, as recorded in Kieran Concannon’s documentary film Inis Airc, Bás Oileáin (Inishark, Death of an Island), which was produced in 2007 by C-Board Films for TG4 television.
“Inis Áirc opened my eyes to the value of what I was putting down,”Reaney told Murphy. “ A sense of capturing something that was slipping away, unbeknownst to the world.”
This work inspired his exhibition entitled Inis Áirc which ran in the Kenny Gallery in 2018, and which forms part of the new display.
Impressions from the Mediterranean island of Malta dating from 1988, and from High Island and Inishlacken off Connemara and Inishnee close to Roundstone are also incorporated, along with Inchagoill on Lough Corrib, the Aran island of Inis Mór, Mayo’s Clare island and recent drawings from Achill island.
Oileán runs in the Kenny Art Gallery, Liosbán, Galway until December 8th, with opening hours Monday to Saturday from 9 am to 5 pm.
About The Author
Lorna Siggins
Email The Author Lorna Siggins is a print and radio reporter, and a former Irish Times western correspondent. She is the author of Everest Callling (1994) on the first Irish Everest expedition; Mayday! Mayday! (2004) on Irish helicopter search and rescue; and Once Upon a Time in the West: the Corrib gas controversy (2010). Read more articles by Lorna Siggins >
Published in Island News, Galway Harbour