Martin Gale- Irish Artist - New Show In Belfast

Five years after the Ulster Museum's major retrospective of his work, Martin Gale has a new solo show in Belfast. One of Gale’s earliest influences was the iconic Portadown-born artist Charles Lamb, a friend of the family. Gale studied at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, influenced - not by abstract expressionism like most contemporaries - but by Pop Art and artists like Hockney, Rivers and Blake. He has exhibited widely in Ireland, England, Europe and the United States. He has represented Ireland in the XI Biennale de Paris and is a member of Aosdana and the RHA. His work is finely painted and detailed, often described as being a combination of early 20th century realism and more modern photo-realism. On one level he says the narrative of the work is usually implied or suggested, giving ingredients of the story and leaving the observer to bring their own interpretation. As Gale says "If it has a beginning, middle and end then it has nowhere to go. It’s over."

Martin Gale - Solo Exhibition
Mullan Gallery - Belfast - 20 May - 6 June, 2010
239 Lisburn Road, Belfast Tel: 02890 202434
Irish Art

Irish Art - The Female Form

The work of Ken Hamilton and Paddy Campbell celebrates the grace, strength and vulnerability of the female form. Hamilton is a well known classical-style portrait painter who studied fine art at Belfast College of Art, rejecting modern art movements and seeking to restore some of the ancient, often discarded values of painting. He says “I want my paintings to be contemporary and also timeless; realistic yet representing an unreal world; almost touchable but totally beyond our reach; as plain as day but still mysterious.” Paddy Campbell retrained at the Florence Academy of Art, working in the traditional "Renaissance" style. He studied anatomy to understand how the body functions and was taught to concentrate on proportion and to represent everything in the most thorough way. His detailed bronze sculptures that are produced using a lost wax method. In 2007, Campbell sculpted the official portrait of the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese and he has often exhibited work in the RHA.

Ken Hamilton & Paddy Campbell
Gormleys Fine Art - Belfast - 20th May - 3rd June 2010
251 Lisburn Road, Belfast Tel: +44 (0)28 9066 3313
Irish Art