The autumn exhibition at Luan Gallery is Asymmetrical Warfare, which will feature the work of award-winning Wicklow based figurative artist Conor Walton.
The exhibition, which includes some new and previously unseen works by Walton, will be launched by Robert Ballagh on Saturday August 17 at 3pm with a wine reception. All are welcome.
Dublin born Walton initially studied painting at National College of Art, Dublin and graduated with a joint honours degree in the history of art and fine art painting, before pursuing an MA in art history at the University of Essex in the UK. He subsequently trained under Charles Cecil in Florence, Italy, where he mastered the traditional skill of fine art drawing and colour, before returning to Ireland in 1996, where he has remained in Wicklow painting full time.
Walton has won numerous awards for his work including ModPortrait 2017, Arc Salon 2014/15, Portrait Ireland 2005, The Taylor Prize 1993, and was shortlisted for both the BP Portrait Award in 2005, and the Golden Fleece Award in 2011. He has had 15 solo exhibitions across Europe and America and has featured in many museum exhibitions including the National Portrait Gallery (London ), MEAM (Barcelona ), The National Gallery of Ireland, and the Scottish National Portrait Gallery (Edinburgh ).
Walton has lectured extensively and hosts the Conor Walton Summer School scholarship programme drawing students from four continents. His commissioned portraits can be found in many public and private collections, and his work has featured on book covers and postage stamps in Ireland and abroad.
Walton sees himself as "a figurative painter in the European tradition, attempting to maintain my craft at the highest level, using paint to explore issues of truth, meaning and value. All my paintings are attempted answers to the three questions in the title of Gauguin’s famous painting: ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?'
“The phrase Asymmetrical Warfare in a way sums up my career and approach to painting and culture, but has particular relevance to my current work because this deals explicitly with cultural conflict, with the crises of our times – political, ecological, financial, cultural and moral – and the warped perspectives that ensue.”
Luan Gallery is open Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 5pm and Sundays 12 noon to 5pm. The gallery is closed on Mondays. Guided tours are free of cost and available on request to all. For further information contact 09064 42154 or email [email protected].
