DEREK FITZPATRICK

 1983               Born in Dublin and works in Dublin, Ireland.

Education

2006                Graduated with B.F.A at the Dublin Institute of Technology

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2014                Memory and Desire, Ards Art Centre, Newtonards, United Kingdom.

2013                Silver Mirrors, Moxie Studios, Dublin.

2011                Paintings, Cockleshell Gallery, Wexford.

2011                The Silence, Mountmellick Library, Laois.

2010                Within the Realm of Feelings, Signal Arts Centre, Bray, Wicklow

2009                New Paintings, Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny

2008                Landscapes, Signal Arts Centre, Bray

2008                Paintings, Ivy House, Drumcondra, Dublin

2007                New Paintings, Cavan Arts Centre, Cavan

2007                New Paintings, Carlinn Gallery, Carlingford

Selected Group Exhibitions

2019                Group shows, Duke Street Gallery and Trinity Gallery, Dublin.

2019                Summer show, Irish Cultural Centre London

2019                Mart Group Show, Mart Gallery, Dublin.

2019                Market House, Dunalvin Arts Festival, Dunlavin.

2017-8                                    Group shows, Glasthule Gallery, Dublin.

2018                Market House, Dunalvin Arts Festival, Dunlavin.

2017                           Market House, Dunalvin Arts Festival, Dunlavin.

2016                Summer and winter shows, Chimera Gallery, Mullingar.

2013                Out of Booooom, Bust & Ruin Springs This, Filmbase, Dublin
2012                Just In Time For The Apocalypse, Moxie Studios, Dublin

2012                Art For Art’s Sake, Avenue Road Gallery, Dublin

2011                FFS POP-UP Gallery @ Kilkenny Arts Fringe, Kilkenny.

2011                Making Do With Paper Clowns, Moxie Studios, Dublin.

2011                One or Several Wolves, Moxie Studios, Dublin.

2010                Ancient Palaces, International group show at Villa Tittoni, Milan

2010                Dunlavin Arts Festival, Dunlavin.

2010                Group show of painting at the Sycamore Arts Club, Dublin

2009                Of This Earth, Rua Red, Dublin. (two person).

2008                Emerging Artist Award, Backstage Arts Centre, Longford

2008                Royal Ulster Academy Annual Show, Belfast

2008                Summer show, Hallward Gallery, Dublin

2008                Enniskillen Visual Arts Festival, Higher Bridges Gallery, Fermanagh

2007                Winter Group Show, Hallward Gallery, Dublin

2007                Figure and Landscape, La Cathedral, Dublin. (two person).

2007                Loft Gallery, Dublin

2007                Summer Group Show, Hallward Gallery, Dublin

2006                RDS Student Art Awards Exhibition, Dublin

2006                DIT Graduate show, St Joseph's Convent, Dublin

Awards

2008                Shortlisted for Backstage Theatre Emerging Artists Award

2006                The Cill Rialaig Studio Residency “Scholarship” for a Young Emerging Artist

Collections

Public Collections: The Unicorn Restaurant (Dublin), OPW (Dublin), Ardstone Capital (Dublin), Cavan Arts Centre (Cavan).

Private Collections in Ireland, UK, Europe and USA.

Artist Statement

Painting for me is not about the description of the visible world; it is a means of conveying the inner landscape of the artist’s heart and mind. Images of nature have remained a potent source of inspiration for artists down to the present day.

Lately I have become fascinated by Chinese paintings from different centuries and their artistic expression has been deeply imprinted with images of the natural world. Viewing Chinese landscape paintings, it is clear that depictions of nature are seldom mere representations of the external world. Rather, they are expressions of the mind and heart of the individual artists as I try to connect with the idea of the human being and the landscape it inhabits.

In this way I try to explore the psychological and spiritual places in the landscape around me. My work describes not the actual world but rather an interior realm; they are the product of my imagination and an intuitive merging of numerous sources, including photographs and memories of photographs, fleeting moments, feelings, and moods. I find myself wanting to paint about the human inside nature, or nature as seen by the human mind.

These are transitional places that sit between land and sea, connections much like those moments between dream and reality, life and death. In this way, my style moves between abstraction and representation. To achieve this, I mine countless sources to create composites of places, stitching together fresh, complex psychological landscapes.

Painting is an alchemical process in a way. It is the magical process of transforming or combining elements into something new. At the beginning of a painting I might have an idea of what I’m going to paint, but most of the time this is abandoned and replaced with a new idea. Sometimes this can happen many times on the one canvas. I might scrape it off or paint over it. This creates a new surface which for me is as important as the image. Adding to this I make choices of color, form, and gesture, I set abstraction against representation, line against wash, dry against dripping brushwork and texture against smooth. Through these different techniques, landscapes often emerge ghostlike from their surroundings.

I hope my paintings will awaken the imagination of the public to remind them of the beauty of the landscape and their surroundings, with the ongoing threat of climate change worldwide which is a constant. Through this I aspire that my work will give viewers the chance to tap into their spiritual sides and I hope my paintings would act as springboards for contemplation that ask us to consider our own hidden worlds.

Derek Fitzpatrick.