Artist Peter Gallagher's latest exhibition explores the medium of ink drawing. These works suggest a medieval and brutal world where chaos and danger are never far away. A place on the edge of the labyrinth that is ready to collapse...
Born in 1956 at Camalt, Drumkeerin in Ireland, Peter has always had a strong interest in the arts and experimented with different forms for as long as he can remember. He learned to play guitar and played in a few bands initially, before delving into experimental and improvised music.
Aged 18, he decided to try acting and headed to Dublin where he found a Stanislavski School at the Focus Theatre. Here, he became besotted by Brando and James Dean fantasies until reality hit him like a hammer and he ended up labouring in the Wicklow Mountains, building a stone crusher wall, his dreams totally crushed.
At 25, Peter took up painting. It seemed like it was waiting for him and he had found a channel to find and tell, strange stories with colour and form. Peter's works have drawn inspiration from a range of artists including Goya, Piero della Francesca and Edvard Munch, yet retain his unique and darkly fantastical style.
More recently he got involved in making films with a couple of friends, and almost, as a development from painting, where the stories of the paintings are brought to life.
Peter has lived and worked at Lauderdale House Arts Centre since 1997, which has been a great place for him to develop and pursue his art over the years.
On his work, Peter said: ‘Since my last painting exhibition, “Found Under a Stone’ in 2023, I have diversified into ink drawing, a form that opened up a new world to me. Much like painting, I had no idea of the outcome. It culminated in the “The Hard Road” an Exhibition of Ink Drawings in late 2024 at the Original Gallery London.
From a blank page and whimsical scratching with a pen, forms begin to take shape. An idea of place and intent emerges. Characters appear and begin to interact and perform, as if from a stage. They belong together. As I go deeper and deeper, the shapes and forms appear to morph in to something else, and more surprising from within, and I am lost in a strange parallel world.
A place where reason and logic have no part to play, a place where the characters are left in a parlous state, to the service of composition. But not only that, it is as though this world is normal to them and things will run their course whatever. On this journey, each mark is looking for an accident to happen and reveal an unforeseen surprise. It’s not about the medium, but the ideas that emanate from it, where the suspension of disbelief reigns.'
To learn more about Peter Gallagher, please visit his instagram or his website.
