Alan Healy Art: August 2011

Looking Back...

Alan Healy MFA (Hons), SCA; MSA, SCA. Sydney Univerisity.

Irish Australian artist; born Dublin Ireland 1954. Art studies in Ireland; he was apprenticed to his uncle - a painter and etcher. Studied at National Art School Sydney, and Sydney Gallery School, Sydney University (painting, drawing, sculpture). Studied sculpture with Eberhart Franke at The Rocks, Sydney. Completed Masters of Fine Art Honours, and Masters of Studio Art at SCA, Sydney University. Worked in Sydney as a maker and restorer of violins and as a musician, plays a variety of musical instruments. As a writer, he has had poetry and short stories published. Alan’s main mode of revealing through his life has been painting; he has a great knowledge of art, with a particular focus on artists of Australia.

Artist statement.

As a painter, I am as much influenced by writers as by other artists. My work has many parallels with literature.

My current cow paintings stem partly from the beginning of James Joyce’s, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and a section of Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, were the dying Bergotte views a section of Vermeer’s View of Delft, in particular, a yellow wall. Other influences touched on during the creation of this body of work were the works and philosophies of artist’s Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richter, and of course the cows roaming the fields near where I live played a great part. I believe that the ordinary is where art comes from, and that the artist and viewer can share a sense of what it is to be human through contact with the concrete arts of painting, drawing and sculpture. I try to show the extraordinary in the most ordinary of subjects.

My maternal grandmother taught me to sing in English and think in Irish, and to remember that we do not think in words. This has served me well so far in that I have been able to express my self through the mediums of music and the visual arts in this chaos that some have described as a charmed life .

In my work over time I have always tried to give the viewer an understanding of the artist’s journeys from abstract generalarities to particularities, unravelling some of the mysteries of representing, and deconstructing assumptions that come between understanding and perception. If an artist can make his subject matter, matter to such an extent that it becomes inexpressive they have reached the core of revealing what it is to be an artist. I love to paint, I love to play. Alan Healy. 2010.

Most recent exhibitions include.

Bowral Sculpture Show, Craigieburn Retreat, Bowral, Nov 10

Balmain Art Show, Nov 10

Nolan on Lovel Drawing Exhibition, Oct 10

Nolan on Lovel Group Exhibition, Sept 10

Eva Breuer Gallery, Aug 10

Nolan on Lovel. July 2010.

Bloomsday, Liverpool, June 2010

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington Oct 09

Balmain Art Show, Oct, 09

Drawing show, Nolan on Lovel. October, 09.

Utes in Paddock exhibition / performance. October 31.

Nolan on Lovel Gallery, Katoomba. July 09.

Waiting, NG Gallery, Chippendale. June 09.

Ceramacism. Delmar Gallery. June 09

Bloomsday, Liverpool, June 09

Acoustoopticaldinatorio Delmar Gallery. April 18, 09

Fishers Ghost Art Award, Oct 08.

Balmain Art Show, Oct, 08.

NG Gallery Sydney. Group show.08.

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington July 08

Bloomsday, Liverpool, June 08

N G Gallery Sydney. Group show.07

Blake Prize, Finalist 07.

Balmain Art Show, Oct 07

Shelf life, Delmar Gallery, Nov 07

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington Oct 07

Bloomsday, Liverpool, June 07

Sydney Uni show 07.

Balmain Art Show, Nov 06

Burton on King Gallery, 06

Liverpool Municipal Library - Bloomsday, June. 06

Burton on King, 05

Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, Dec, 2005

Balmain Annual Art Show, Balmain, 2005

Group exhibition, Sydney Town Hall, Sept 2005

The Palm House, Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 2005

Mary Place, Paddington, July, 2005

Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, Sept 2005

Mary Place, Paddington, June, 2005

Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, 2005

Tsunami Art Auction, Sothebys, Sydney, 2005

Art for Tsunami Caringbah, 2005

Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown, 2004 (finalist)

Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, 2004

Frances Keevil Annual Art Exhibition, Woollahra, 2004

The Palm House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 2004

Gig Gallery, Glebe, 2004

Global Galleries, Paddington, 2004

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, 2004

The Palm House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, 2003

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, 2003

Mura Clay Gallery, Newtown, 2003

Global Galleries, Paddington, 2003

“Locale” Exhibition, Parramatta Heritage Centre, 2003

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, 2002

Global Gallery, Paddington, 2002

Frances Keevil Design Annual Art Exhibition, Woollahra, 2002

ArtSpace, Rozelle, Sydney, 2002

Blacktown City Exhibition, 2001. (prize for sculpture)

Waverly Woollahra Exhibition, 2001. (prize for painting)

Mary Place Gallery, Paddington, 2001

Frances Keevil Design Annual Art Exhibition, Woollahra, 2001

Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth, 2001

Gymea Regional Gallery, Sydney, 2001

Access Gallery, Sydney, 2001

Installations:

‘Mary’. Art Gallery of NSW.

Acoustoopticaldinoratorio. Delmar Gallery.

Exile. Botanical Gardens, Sydney

Works in Private Collections:

Ireland – Dublin, Limerick, Cork

Norway – Stavanger

England – London

Denmark – Copenhagen, Haderslev

Canada – Toronto

USA – New York, San Jose.

Australia – Brisbane, Sydney, Cairns, Canberra (National Library of Australia), Adelaide,

Port Douglas

Hong Kong

PUBLICATIONS AND TEXT.

A Short History of the Perpetual Now.

‘The Bookshelf’ Look magazine.

Acoustoopticialdinoratorio text.

‘Love Letters’ ABC publications.

Zinewest, poetry magazine. 07. 09.

Anthology. 09. N.S.W. Writers.

'Violin and Bow Makers of Australia'

FILM.

‘Act of Betrayal’ CBS, Fox.

Acoustoopticaldinoratorio.

Bloomsday.

‘The red violin’.

The gig.

Alan Healy Art

Welcome to my world!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Some works for show at Frances Keevil Gallery, in November.