Gerry Devlin
The work is engaged with a visual language and vocabulary that is exclusive to painting.
The paintings deploy both formal, abstract devices ( such as stripe motifs, painterly treatment, split picture planes ) along with images of commonplace, utilitarian objects, and 3-dimensional forms. Essentially self-referential, the work steers a path between, and thus avoids, tendencies towards the categorisation of painting as being within the realms of either “abstraction” or “figuration” – in a sense the paintings endeavour to occupy a position that accommodates both of these definitions yet is simultaneously neither.
Born: Belfast N. Ireland
Education: BA Hons Fine Art (Painting), Advanced Diploma (Painting) University of Ulster MFA Studio Arts (Painting), Syracuse University, New York (1979 – 1981)
Awards: Prizewinner, Strictly Painting 11, McClean Project for the Arts, VA, USA; Maryland State Arts Council Individual Arts Award, 1st Prizewinner, 2nd Open Exhibition, Works on Paper, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast; Prizewinner, Claremorris Open Exhibition, Mayo, Purchase Prize, 43rd Annual Exhibition, Munsen-Williams-Proctor Art Museum, Utica New York.
Solo Exhibitions: Fenderesky Gallery, 2023; Fenderesky Gallery, 2020; Engine Room Gallery Belfast, 2017; Crescent Arts Centre Belfast, 2016; Engine Room Gallery Belfast, 2014; Old Museum Arts Centre Belfast, 2008; Engine Room Gallery Belfast, 2007; Fenderesky Gallery Belfast, Old Museum Arts Centre, 2004, Dunamaise Arts Centre, Co Laois, 2003; School 33 Arts Centre Baltimore USA,1998; Halcyon Gallery Baltimore USA, 1996; Project Arts Centre Dublin, Crawford Municipal Arts Gallery Cork and Arts Council Gallery Belfast, 1989/90
Group Exhibitions: Golden Thread Gallery, 2021; Fenderesky Gallery Belfast; Naughton Gallery, Queens University Belfast; Sligo Art Gallery; Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast; Emerson Gallery Washington USA; Resurgam Gallery Baltimore USA; Claremorris Prizewinners, Ireland; Monaghan County Museum; Crescent Arts Centre, Belfast; Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse , New York; Munsen-Williams-Proctor Art Institute, New York.
Collections: Arts Council of N. Ireland; Queens University Belfast; Office of Public Works, Dublin; Munsen-Williams-Proctor Museum of Contemporary Art, Utica New York; Monaghan County Museum, Ireland; Craigavon Area Hospital, N Ireland; St Louise’s Comprehensive College, Belfast; private collections in Ireland and USA.
Teaching/Lecturing work: 2004 – 2022 – Full-time Lecturer Foundation Studies in Art & Design, University of Ulster (retired)
