Michael Quane RHA
Michael Quane was born in 1962. The world he found himself in, as an eager spectator, was displayed to him on an early black and white TV. The screen showed him Vietnam, civil rights marches, Northern Ireland, a man walking on the Moon, the theatre of the Cold War, Chopper bikes, flared jeans and many Apollos inspiring him to want to be an astronaut—for a while anyway. The Day of the Triffids and Carl Sagan on the telly also caught his attention. The latter gave him a very welcome metric of cosmic perspective and an appetite for it since then and the former, simply, terrifying the life out of him.
Later, having just about survived a Huck Finn style adolescence on a home built raft on the lacework of rivers and lakes near his home in the late 70s, and passing through 6 different schools and a university, studying Science, he arrived at Art College where he studied for 5 years up to 1987, to a Post Graduate level.
In art college much of what he’d previously been schooled-in needed to be shelved, and novelty, now, needed to be taken very seriously indeed. He achieved independence through bar-work, and bought a fast bicycle and an astronomical telescope to better see the heavens with and hurtled through those years with enthusiasm: finding love and having his heart broken in equal proportions along the way.
Since then he’s traveled a bit, moved house many times and studio more times than that, built a shedifice or two, restored and renovated an old church building, had two beautiful children, Lucy and Josef, and managed to make sculpture in between.
He now lives and works in West Cork adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean. He is drawn to the human binary of passion and prudence, risk and safety, and finds something of that exposed near to the proximity of the land with the sea. He lives here where he works, with his dog, Coco, well within the range of the Atlantic’s briney-mist and most days visits the strip on either side of its tidal breadth by kayak or on foot.
Selected Collections
University College Cork - Butler Gallery - Nicholas Treadwell Gallery - OPW - Dept. of Justice - Kilkenny County Council - University of Limerick - Cork County Council - Cork City Council - Cork County Library Service - Flynn Hotel Group - Allied Irish Bank - AXA Insurance - Castlebar General Hospital - Nissan Ireland - Kileen Group Holdings - Private Collections in Ireland, UK, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Austria.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2020 Strange Beasts - Lavit Gallery - Cork.
2019 Skibbereen Arts Festival - West Cork Hotel - Cork
2019 Recent Sculpture - Solomon Fine Art, Dublin
2011Out of Pareidolia - Triskel Christchurch - Cork
2007 Buoyed - Vangard Gallery - Cork
2004 Lewes Live Literature - Lewes - UK
2002 Featured Artist - Eigse - Carlow
2001New Works - Fenton gallery - Cork
1998 New Works - Temple Bar Gallery - Dublin
1997 New Works - Halward Gallery - Dublin
1992 New works - Triskel Arts Centre - Cork
Selected joint Exhibitions
2019 At Kellys Hotel Rosslare with Caroline Ward, coinciding with the Wexford Opera Festival.
2003 At the Vangard Cork with Anna Barden.
1989 Across the water - Crypt Gallery - London, with Mary Rose O’ Neill.
1989 Touring to Collins Gallery, Glasgow.
Group Exhibitions — 2019 Numerous past Group Exhibitions each year including
Art and Soul, International Art Festival, Culloden Resort, Belfast.
New York, London, Paris, Ghent, Los Angeles and Basle Art Fairs.
Many Group Exhibitions in Dublin, Cork, London, Glasgow, Basle and Amsterdam.
Each year at the RHA Annual Exhibition
Selected Commissions
Fish Man - public/private - Basle - Switzerland
Bovine - private - Basle - Switzerland
Tomás Ó Criomhthain - An tOileánach - OPW - Dún Chaoin - Ireland
Fallen Horse and Rider - Midleton UDC - Ireland
Figure talking to a Quadruped - UCC- Ireland
Horses and Riders - Cork County Council - Mallow- Co. Cork
History and a Dust Cloth - Cork County Council - Ballincollig - Co. Cork.
Lapidophytum Stagnalis - OPW - National Botanic Gardens - Dublin.
Time and a Dust-Sheet - Castleblayney - Co. Monaghan.
Persona - OPW - Mayorstone Garda HQ - Limerick
Tracing Steps - Duchas - Killarney - Co. Kerry
Figure with Buoyancy - Castlebar General Hospital - Co. Mayo.
Pupa - Coillte - Sculpture in Woodland - Co. Wicklow
Scotia - private - London
Dreamer in G, private, Old Ground Hotel, Ennis
Oisín agus Embarr. remembering Frank Murray, music Manager and facilitator for many, incl Phil Lynnot, and The Pogues.
Peer recognition
1998 Elected to Aosdána
2004 Elected a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy
Awards
The Solomon Gallery Sculpture award, 2018
De Vere’s award for a work of distinction, 2018.
Shortlisted for the RCSI Award RHA, 2018.
ESB Moran Silver Medal for Sculpture.
AXA Drawing Award
The Solomon Gallery Sculpture Award.
