One of the distinguishing factors in the RHA’s innovative exhibition programme is our commitment to presenting established Irish artists in major exhibitions of an international standard. Painters such as Barrie Cooke HRHA, John Noel Smith, Richard Gorman RHA and Stephen McKenna PRHA have all had very successful, large solo shows over recent years, with accompanying catalogues, and have been re-introduced to their existing audiences and in many cases introduced for the first time to a new younger audience.
Ciarán Lennon continues this proud tradition with a solo show in the newly refurbished Gallery I. Lennon has been a mainstay on the Irish painting scene for over 30 years with solo exhibitions in IMMA, the Chester Beatty Library and the Douglas Hyde as well as exhibiting internationally. His work has also been included in exhibitions representing contemporary Irish art at home and internationally including; Sense of Ireland, 1980, London; L’Imaginaire Irlandais, Paris; the Pursuit of Painting, the Irish Museum of Modern Art and Irish drawing, Drawing Centre, New York.
Lennon’s painting is a particular hybrid of American Minimalism with its insistence on the materiality of the painted object and European Arte Povera which licensed the associative quality of materials. Lennon’s recent work on which this exhibition concentrates comprises of painted objects that arise from an interaction between artist, natural law and material qualities. There is a playfulness here, a jolie, so often the mark of the artist at the peak of his game. Lennon will conceive a special installation of his work to respond to the new space of the Gallery unencumbered with the staircase which previously invaded the space.

Selection of images from the exhibition