Elevation

Conor Gallagher

Saturday 24th May to Friday 27th June 2025

Elevation started in Spring 2024 with journeys around Teesan, Carncash, Rahabarna and Kiltycooly in north Sligo where there are remarkable views of the Dartry mountains at close range. The show features paintings, photography and prints which are part of Conor’s ‘Sligo Mountain Series’. Conor’s paintings in acrylic with their dramatic monotone blue skies offer a unique view of these familiar locations. These paintings often started in a realistic style and were then de-constructed which involved literally scraping back to the surface.

Conor is originally from Sligo and is a graphic designer and artist living and working in Dublin. He has exhibited in places as diverse as woodlands in Sligo, a small island in Denmark, a clubhouse in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and the Salon Prado in Madrid, Spain. He won Best Irish Artist at the 20th National Open Art Exhibition in London in October 2016 and has exhibited at the Royal Academy Annual Exhibition in London, the RHA Annual Exhibition in Dublin and the RUA Annual Exhibition in Belfast. His work is seen in the collections at Adare Manor, Office of Public Works, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, NUI Galway, Mastercard UK and Digicel and also in private collections in USA, France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and Belgium.

Conor spent a year in residence in the Model Arts studios in Sligo in 2010-11, and had two on-site exhibitions, ‘The Hawks Rock’ in Coolaney and ‘The Lovers Tree’ in Dooney Wood, as part of Culture Night. A recent exhibition in Dublin, ‘Shore’ was based on the Sligo coastline. In 2024, he joined the Graphic Studio Dublin and printmaking has enabled him to bring a more graphic approach to his artworks.

In July 2024, he jointly won the Hamilton Award at Cairde Visual with David Smith for two of his Sligo Mountain paintings, ‘Copes’ and ‘Glencar’ which led to this joint exhibition.

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