CURRENT RESIDENT ARTISTS

Alan Monahan is a multi-disciplinary artist from Trim, Co. Meath who integrates his painting practice with his extensive body of poetry. He studied at École les Beaux Arts de Paris for one and has lived abroad and travelled extensively. He has since returned to Paris where he has developed a studio practice.

Alan’s work is a deeply intimate study of his own internal landscape, an expression of his physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual states. In his artistic explorations he
touches on themes of death, human relation, the natural world, religious experience and mystery. We see these internal meditations, ideas and feelings expressed through the visual landscape of his upbringing and through his engagements with the artistic and cultural tapestries of where he has lived in Europe.

Growing up in the historic town of Trim, the local stories and myths are present in the figures, symbols and landscapes of his work. Combined with his interest in religious iconography and stories from scripture, we are presented with a blend of both local and universal imagery.

His artistic process is a dialogue between his extensive body of written poetry and his capacity for expression through paint. His poems, written in accordance with his experience, find synchronicity with his paintings that stem from his rich visual vocabulary that we see through his compositions, figurative expressions and symbolism. The linguistic expression becomes further informed by what’s being
conveyed on the canvas as both mediums enhance and amplify the profundity of the other, working in tandem until they find a mutually reinforcing equilibrium. Viewers can then be guided through the painting by the poem and vice versa.