Award winning Roscommon artist displays most recent project at graduate show

An award-winning Ballaghaderreen artist recently held his graduate show at NCAD, Dublin.

Conor O’Connell’s show, entitled ‘Organisation’, centres around archaeology and artefacts from the bronze age found in the locality, with a particular focus on Lough Gara.

Son of Aisling and Pat from Kilcolman, Conor, a former student at St. Nathy’s College, is an emerging artist in the field of visual arts. He has already amassed accolades such as the James O’Nolan Graduate Award from the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) for his oil painting, ‘Veneration’, the K+M Evans Painting Prize at the RHA annual exhibition in Dublin for his oil painting entitled ‘Workshop’, and even had one of his paintings purchased by the OPW for the State art collection.

His graduate project, ‘Venerations’ was primarily a painting exhibition, but there were also displays of objects and installations. The overall theme was about collecting, making, curating and how objects were arranged.

Conor, who previously credited his uncle Michael, also from Ballaghaderreen, with his interest in art, says he’s always had an interest in local history, attributing it to “growing up in an area that’s rich in prehistoric history”.

The NCAD graduate was able to expertly marry these two interest for his project. “My interest is in the making of things rather than the textbook history. I’m very interested in pre-historic objects, mostly bronze age tools and weaponry, and I actually experimented with bronze casting last summer. A lot of those replicas of prehistoric artefacts are also on display, alongside the paintings. So there’s a connection between the paintings and the objects which I think has worked out well.

“Most of the replicas are of artefacts that would’ve been found in the 1950’s when Lough Gara was drained and the crannogs were discovered.”

The Ballaghaderreen native, who is also studying a joint degree in secondary school teaching started the project last summer. “I would’ve had a break because I was out on school placement because I did the joint degree in education. From September until Christmas last year I was in Tubbercurry, and then from January on I would’ve being doing the project.”

‘Veneration’ proved to be a personal project for Conor. “I really connected with my local area. My work is naturally all connected, because my work is so concerned with things like my own hobbies such as making and collecting things, and local landscapes. So I think I just became very connected by default really, between my local area and my work.”

Conor has extended his gratitude to all those that helped him with his project. “I’d like to thank my parents for being supportive of it and by brother, Cian, for sitting for a lot of the photoshoots, to eventually be turned into paintings”, Conor laughed as he added, “I think he’d appreciate a shoutout”.

“Also my tutors up in NCAD, particularly Vanessa Jones, she was extremely helpful to me”.

Conor will be exhibiting his works at the upcoming Boyle Arts Festival in July, and in his home town for the Ballaghaderreen Arts Festival in August.