Cian O’Sullivan

Old Paintings: New Drawings

 

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Cian O’Sullivan is a figurative painter and draughtsman based in Mallow, Co. Cork. During Cork’s year as the European Capital of Culture in 2005, Cian won the Art Trail Emerging Artist Prize and had his first professional solo show, Paintings and Studies of Cork.

Since then he has had numerous solo shows and worked extensively as a commissioned artist. He has also worked as an art facilitator and educator at numerous charities such as the Cope Foundation and Cuan Mhuire, for state bodies such as the HSE and the VEC (now CETB).

The large paintings exhibited here are some of Cian’s earliest portraiture at this scale, and are of personal signi cance. Cathy and John F. are portraits of his grandmother and father. Elaine is one of the first painted portraits a friend agreed to sit for. e exception to the portraits, the urban landscape R & H Hall (V) is also of personal signi cance: as well as being a familiar Cork landmark that is now being demolished, it is in this area of the city that his grandfather Daniel worked as a mechanic repairing vehicles for Mother’s Pride Bakery.

The three small format drawings are part of a new body of work that is an on-going project. They are based on exercises from illustrator’s textbooks such as Drawing the Head and Hands by Andrew Loomis, but with an attempt to render the material in a more expressive manner influenced by artists who also worked extensively with the human head as a theme such as Kathe Kollowitz, Francis Bacon and Louis LeBroquy.

Contact: 087 9033 277

cianjosullivan@gmail.com