Earth Songs and Colour Poems, a solo exhibition by Joe Dunne RHA to launch on 8 September 2024

The Olivier Cornet Gallery is delighted to present Joe Dunne's first solo exhibition with us. 

Joe Dunne RHA was born in Dublin in 1957 and graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1978. His work has often remained within the traditional genres of still life, landscape and portrait painting with recent forays into more stylised or abstract pieces. Dunne is equally accomplished in watercolours, oils and his preferred medium of egg tempera, and has also successfully explored print making. His paintings have won prizes at the Arnotts National Portrait Awards and the Keating McLaughlin Medal, for a group portrait, at the RHA Annual in 2006. He was awarded 1st prize in the inaugural Davy Portrait Awards in 2008.

Commissions by the Office of Public Works include his portraits of former Taoiseach Eamon deValera and of President Mary McAleese.

Dunne's work is included in the collections of AXA Insurance Ltd., The Royal Dublin Society, The Office of Public Works, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, The National University of Ireland at Maynooth, Ballinglen Art Foundation Archive, The National Self-Portrait Collection, The Irish Medical Organisation, Dublin Dental School and Hospital, and The Boyle Civic Collection. 

The artist is a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy and held the position of Principal of the RHA School of Drawing from 2011-2014.

"...Recently my focus has been almost entirely on abstract composition, principally a series under the collective title of Earth Songs which I began in 2020 alongside other related paintings. Underlying structures such as grids are often used. Geometric forms are frequent elements but not to the exclusion of other organic shapes and mark making. Such approaches connect the work to some of the oldest known paintings in human cultures around the world. There is also a strong correlation with some visual art movements and music developments of the 20th century. The aim has generally been to make poetic, lyrical or aesthetic works, to touch on some essence which may hopefully resonate with the viewer..."

Please visit Earth Songs and Colour Poems to read the artist's full statement on this beautiful body of work.

We are delighted to announce that the actress and writer Clare Dunne will open the show at 3pm on Sunday 8 September 2024.

Image: Earth Song 12 - Night Heat, egg/oil tempera on paper, 32.2x40.7 cm.