In addition to the previous bodies of work shown from the McClelland Collection, there are sizeable holdings of work by individual artists which facilitate significant one-person shows. This show will be drawn from the 80 or so oil paintings and gouaches by Tony O’Malley from the 1960s and ’70s, when the artist was based at Saint Ives in Cornwall. These works provide an opportunity to study an important period in O’Malley’s development before he became the established figure in the Irish art-world that he is today.
Tony O’Malley, recipient of the Imma Glen Dimplex Award for a Sustained Contribution to the Visual Arts in Ireland in 1999, is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s foremost painters. His reputation dates mainly from the early 1980s when he returned to live in his native Callan, Co Kilkenny, after many years of virtual obscurity in Cornwall. Many of the oil paintings and gouaches reveal his love of Kilkenny, its landscape and its history, but the paintings of still-life objects and the bird life of Cornwell are less well known.
An exhibition guide accompanies the exhibition (price €3.80, £3.00).