Biography

Gerry O’Mahony is a graduate of LSAD Limerick. He has lived in Ireland, Israel and Malawi. He was a member of one of Limerick’s first artist collectives (All + 10 sorts) and exhibited at length with the group. O’Mahony lives in County Clare, was a member of Contact Studios, Limerick, from 2005 until 2017. He has been part of James’s St., Studios, Limerick, since January 2018.

His first solo exhibition was at the Belltable Arts Centre, Limerick, and subsequently he has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. His work is in private and public collections in Ireland and abroad, including Limerick County and City Council, Government buildings, Dublin, and Berlaymont Building, Brussels.

He had a solo show ‘Keepers of Silence’ at Draoicht, Blanchardstown Art Centre, Dublin in 2015, ‘Changing Shadows’ at the Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon, in June 2016 with Vivienne Bogan at the Kilkenny Fringe Festival, 2017. He had two shows in 2018, ‘Paradigm I’, GalleryInterlude Limerick and ‘Paradigm II’, Friars Gate, Kilmallock. In April 2019 he had an exhibition of New Work at CBI1 Gallery Limerick and this new exhibition ‘Gathering Strings’ is part of work also completed since he started in James St. Studios.

Working in mixed media, and often on several paintings at a time to create a body of work, he combines watercolour, gold leaf, and acrylic, in a layering process which often conveys the impression of marks floating on and within the surface. The work employs a vocabulary of symbols and characters which often distort the line between painting and drawing.

“…an odyssey that shows humanity’s struggle to find ways to inhabit the planet in a peaceful, productive and co-operative way…”

Artist Statement

“In my work I seek to confront the instinctive realities of human and cultural challenges in a world which fluctuates between the familiar and the unknown, an odyssey that shows humanity’s struggle to find ways to inhabit the planet in a peaceful, productive and co-operative way. From Plato’s Simile of the Cave, to Job in the belly of a fish, the paintings assert that the basis of the problem lies in the individual’s personal struggle to integrate the physical and the spiritual realities of human existence.

Employing a vocabulary of symbols and characters in the work often distorts the line between painting and drawing, and sometimes can provoke an emotional and instinctive response from the viewer. These works though not allegorical, undulate between the perceptible and the concealed, the vibrant and the hazy, and implicit is a struggle between memory and imagination. My work shows the influence of the patterned, symbolic, colourful images of ancient and primitive art where the creations are a celebration of life that is simple and uncontrived- an art without “art”. It is a response to all of these influences and yet none of them – a separate entity created from the inter-mingling of both major and minor influences. The work is an expression of a vision of the world, an invitation to observers to share that vision and create their own. It is both a statement and a challenge.”