Cristín Leach talks to painter Brian Harte about his new exhibition and how Instagram led to sudden international success
Tipperary-born painter Brian Harte was making a name for himself internationally but flying mostly under the radar at home when Anna O’Sullivan, Director of the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny, paid him a studio visit. Researching for a survey exhibition, she selected a large interior painting, Varia (2022), to show alongside works by twenty-five other artists as part of ‘Generation 2022: New Irish Painting’. For Harte, it was a kind of homecoming. The Butler, in its original Kilkenny Castle iteration, had been a significant cultural contact point for him since childhood. ‘It was a gallery where I went to see a lot of older Irish artists. Michael Warren was there – all these big names – so when Anna approached me it was like dream-come-true stuff.’ Three years on, he’s having a solo show at the Butler.
To read this article in full, subscribe or buy this edition of the Irish Arts Review
Margarita Cappock visits an exhibition that explores artists’ lived experience of becoming – or not becoming – a mother, in all its intricacy
Francis Halsall finds in Atsushi Kaga’s paintings an aesthetic influenced by Japanese culture, European art and everyday life
Emer McGarry offers insights into works included in the thematic exhibition ‘Inheritance’