Patrick Graham : Transfiguration

Hugh Lane Gallery is delighted to present the first solo museum exhibition in Ireland by Irish artist Patrick Graham, who is widely regarded as one of Ireland’s most influential contemporary painters. Entitled Transfiguration, this survey exhibition showcases a selection of his collage drawings from the “Síle na Gig” series alongside the monumental triptych paintings from the 1980s and recent work from the Lark in the Morning series.

Patrick Graham’s painterly, improvised surfaces regularly convey a startling openness and vulnerability. His works are often abrupt and even violent but also tender, vulnerable and feel inordinately exposed, even unhinged, and suspended in space. Graham is in many ways an artist of continuity. In a world where the legitimacy of facts is in constant flux, it is reassuring to find an artist who invokes at various points a philosophy of “living in truth,” of keeping a sacred space for what you can prove to be true and to leave a trace of that truth for others to see.

Graham emerged in the 1980s in a period of uncertainty among painters and he consolidated a position that was dedicated to a personal search for existential meaning through aesthetic experience. His practice reveals an enthralling space and diagrammatic universe teeming with meaning. Often incorporating words onto his canvas but not as citation or illustration, rather, the words and the paint, both made of painterly lines are visible, inseparable actions that pack a visceral immediacy. In these actions, Graham thrusts the artwork into the present. By awaking the senses the artist alerts the viewer to the transience of revelation. Graham is a critic of society’s civilising restrictions and his states of intense sensory consciousness are themes that few artists have ever expressed so precisely in their work.

We are delighted to present Patrick Graham: Transfiguration in the Hugh Lane Gallery which is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication and will include contributions from Richard Cork, Kelly Grovier and Jörg Heiser.  On sale from May with book launch to be announced. Transfiguration is supported by an associated education programme throughout the duration of the exhibition. Please see hughlane.ie for details.

Curated by Michael Dempsey.

Patrick Graham was born in Mullingar, Co. Westmeath in 1943. He was awarded a scholarship to National College of Art and Design (1959–1963) and since the late 1960s has exhibited in Ireland and internationally. He is a member of Aosdána and in 1987, was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal, Oireachtas Exhibition. In 2016 Graham was awarded the Savills Art Prize. Graham works are in private and public collections. He has participated in many symposia including the National Gallery of Ireland; Berkeley Art Museum, IMMA, Trinity College Dublin; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; Hokkaido Museum, Japan; University of Michigan; Northeastern University, Boston; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles and Hillsboro Gallery, Dublin.

About Hugh Lane Gallery
Hugh Lane Gallery is Dublin City Council’s gallery of modern and contemporary art. The gallery’s original collection of modern art was presented by Sir Hugh Lane in 1908 and, following the ethos of its founder, the gallery continues to collect and exhibit modern and contemporary art.

2022 programme

Public lecture: talk with Jörg Heiser
Wednesday, March 16, 4pm
Free, please book here or come on the day subject to availability.

Public lecture: talk with Kelly Grovier 
Friday May 13, 1pm
Free, book here, or come on the day subject to availability. 

Coffee conversation: talk with exhibition curator Victoria Evans
Wednesday, June 8, 11am
€5 fee to include tea/coffee, no advance booking required but numbers are limited. 

Patrick Graham Study Morning
Friday, July 8, 10am–12:30pm 
Themes from the exhibition will be explored with a range of invited contributors.

Further details on hughlane.ie.

Admission is free. All are welcome.

For further information please contact: victoria.evans [​at​] dublincity.ie / T (01) 222 5563