Martin Gale’s paintings deal with the interaction between people and the contemporary Irish landscape, often creating a dark commentary on rural life in modern Ireland. He works in a realist manner using both oils and watercolour. Uninterested in painting scenery, he uses landscape as a setting for his arrested narratives which sometimes have an edge. The resulting anxiety often captures an unease about identity and place that fundamentally determines much of the contemporary Irish debate.

A member of Aosdana since 1982, he was elected a member of the RHA in 1996. In 2013, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts by the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. Gale graduated from NCAD in 1973 and held his first solo show in 1975 in the Neptune Gallery. He moved to the Taylor Galleries in 1980 with whom he has held numerous solo shows. In the early 1980’s he was the subject of an Arts Council touring exhibition travelling to 10 venues throughout Ireland. In 2004/2005 the RHA hosted a major retrospective of his work which then travelled to the Ulster Museum in Belfast.

He represented Ireland a number of times including at the X1 Biennale in Paris. He has exhibited widely in Ireland, England, Europe and the USA. Many public, private and corporate collections hold his work including the Irish Museum of Modern Art and The National Gallery of Ireland.

Gale lives and works in Co. Kildare and is represented by the Taylor Galleries in Dublin.