Belmond Grand Hibernian Curated Art Brochure

INSPIRATIONS OF IRELAND

TOUCH THE HEART OF IRELAND THROUGH BELMOND’S FIRST CURATED COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY FINE ART.

THE CURATOR

“My aim was to create a unique representation of contemporary Ireland through some of the country’s most prominent and emerging artists. Each expresses a distinctive and sometimes unexpected vision; all the works have a strong sense of place, exploring different aspects of this diverse island steeped in legend and natural beauty. I have sought out the unusual, the suspenseful, the dramatic. Guests will experience the richness of art in Ireland today and the land that inspires it.” KATIE KENNEDY PEREZ

MICK O’DEA

One moment bathed in bright sunlight, the next drenched in sparkling rain, the next suffused with rosy early-evening light. “Ireland has an amazing range of landscapes,” says this County Mayo artist. “It puts you in touch with something the modern world has lost. The scene can look monochromatic and then the sky suddenly illuminates an area and the ridges become exposed – this is the magic that inspires me.”

SAMUEL LAURENCE CUNNANE

Exotic plants thrive in the unique microclimate that embraces the artist’s County Kerry homeland. “To create these images I set out at 4am each morning, then waited for the perfect moment to unfold. I look to capture small interactions glimpsed in the corner of an eye, in Kerry’s heavy, atmospheric light – and then exaggerate the effect.”

AMELIA STEIN

A haunting beauty pervades images of tropical greenery reaching up towards the roof of Dublin’s 19th-century Palm House. Stein spent two years painstakingly capturing the light effects created on the leaves of plants by thousands of panes of glass. She says: “The scale of the house, and its light-filled interior, suggest an outdoor space, but the world it evokes is strange and ‘other’. The light is doubly filtered, firstly by the opaque, moisture-frosted glass, then by the green veil of leafy plants, their varied shapes casting intricate and mysterious patterns below. A whisper carries in the muted air.”

DOROTHY CROSS

The rich, ever-changing landscapes around the artist’s Connemara home inspire works that explore the relationship between mankind and the natural world. Her passion for Ireland’s remote west coast is revealed in her ‘Worm Hole’ series, based on a unique geological phenomenon – rich with legend – on the secluded island of Inis Mór.

ED MILIANO

The subtle play of light on leaves, rich colours and overlapping branches… Miliano’s fragmentary painting reveals a multiplicity of points of view and moments in time. Says Miliano of The Woods II, inspired by the trees surrounding the rural County Cork studio where he was working: “the viewer is invited to experience the motion and light of the living, breathing forest.”

LAURENCE RIDDELL

Countering a classical approach, Riddell portrays the horse in modern-day society. His dramatic painting, with its blurred rendering of the animal’s head, comes from an artist who once carried out a residency in a Kildare stud farm. In a land renowned for its thoroughbreds and racing, this Belfast-born artist explores man’s complex relationship with an animal that for centuries has been an essential part of rural Irish life.