The language of Kevin Mooney's recent paintings is rooted in a territory somewhere between history, folklore and a fantastical imagined world. Motifs from Irish visual culture compete on the canvas with decorative and abstract elements to create a backdrop which suggests the possibilities of cultural cross pollination. Historical research into cultural migration has played a key role in developing his practice.
His work is caught between, on one hand, an exploration of oil paint and its processes, and, on the other, images which suggest a darkly humorous imagined world of folk tales and modern day myth.
While the subject matter of the works invites us to contemplate the loss of mystery and magic from contemporary culture, we are also drawn in by the dynamic and often surprising layering of the compositions. There is an engagement with the process and language of painting here. Mooney’s paintings use techniques and motifs which often articulate references to painting’s history, both within and outside the mainstream.
Kevin graduated from NCAD with an MFA in 2012. Selected group exhibitions include "What Is and What Might Be", Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda 2015, “Making Familiar”, Temple Bar Gallery 2012, “Horizon Sprawl”, Ormston House, Limerick 2012, and “Video Killed the Radio Star”, Royal Hibernian Academy 2010. Solo shows include "Wave" Pallas Projects, Dublin 2014, “Dog Island Tales” Talbot Gallery 2014, Nag Gallery 2010, “Timeline” Queen Street Gallery, Belfast, 2010 and “Facade”, Mermaid Arts Centre Bray 2009. He received a Visual Artists Bursary from the Arts Council in both 2012 and 2013. In 2013 he was also shortlisted for the Thames and Hudson publication “100 Painters of Tomorrow”.
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