Founding Member of Temple Bar Gallery & Studio

Robert Armstrong is a contemporary painter who was born in Gorey, Co. Wexford in 1953. He currently lives and works in Dublin and is represented by the Kevin Kavanagh Gallery. Outside of his painting practice he is one of the founding members of Temple Bar Gallery and Studios and is Head of Painting at The National College of Art and Design since 2002.

Click on the images below to view the works within the Collection

Engagement with the Painted Surface

Robert Armstrong’s work from the 70’s until the late 90’s addresses landscape in a painting language, which explores painting after Modernism. The landscape of Wexford and Wicklow was a starting point. A series of works from the mid 90’s used the frozen surface of the pond of the Botanical Gardens as a metaphor for an exploration of the possibilities of ‘surface’ in painting and used photographs as sources. Later paintings refer to the volcanic landscape of the Aeolian Islands in the Mediterranean. The shimmering, sulphurous heat of that landscape resulted in paintings which used a different colour register and were further abstracted by often being based on individual frames from video footage. Currently Armstrong’s practice concentrates on generating new meanings and narratives for Renaissance paintings by bringing insignificant background details to the forefront  in order for a contemporary society to appreciate.

“Over the past few years, Armstrong’s ever complex engagements with the painted surface have been expanded into more broad-based interrogations of the meaning of surfaces, contemplating the appearances of things in a manner not unrelated to Clark’s wish to address ‘all that is hidden and travesied’ in the dominant visual regimes of contemporary culture.” – Declan Long, from the book published on the occasion of Robert Armstrong’s exhibition at Kevin Kavanagh Gallery 2007.

Resume

Studied at National College of Art and Design, Dublin

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Blimp on the Horizon, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin, 2009

Afterimages, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Dublin 2007

Mini Solo, Fenton Gallery, Cork, 1999

Hallward Gallery, Dublin, 1997

Hallward Gallery, Dublin, 1996

Vangard Gallery, Macroom, Cork, 1995

Hallward Gallery, Dublin, 1994

Model Arts Centre, Sligo, 1994

Jennymount Mill, Belfast, 1994

Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, 1993

Hallward Gallery, Dublin, 1992

Riverrun Gallery, Dublin, 1989

Galway Arts Festival, UCG, Galway, 1989

Wexford Festival Opera, Wexford, 1984

Peacock Gallery, Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 1976

Tubular Gallery, Cork, 1976

Funge Art Centre, Gorey, 1975

Selected Group Exhibitions

Look Again: Recent Art From Ireland, selected by Aidan Dunne, Purdy Hicks, London, 2009

Confessions of a Tiger, Brick LAne GAllery, London, 2008

Boyle Arts Festival, Boyle, Co. Roscommon, 2006

A Moment In Time, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 2005

NCAD Staff Exhibtion, Sydney, Australia, 2003

O’ Keefe Gallery, Nebraske, USA

The Painting Centre, 9with Michael Dempsey and Mary Avril Gillan), New York, 1990

Art Inc, Guinness Hop Store, Dublin, 1989

Showcase, Royal Hospital Kilmainham, 1988

Process as Image, curated by Declan McGonagle, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 1985

A Critical Sense Of Irish Art, curated by Aidan Dunne, Limerick City GAllery of Art, 1984

Invited Artist, EIGSE, Carlow, 1982

Art From The State, OPW Touring Show, New York, 1974

The October Exhibition, 16 Irish Artists, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 1974

Independent Artists, Dublin, 1974

Irish Exhibition of Living Art, Dublin, 1974

Awards

OPW Commission for Leinster House, 2000

Government Building, Dublin, 1994

Oireachtas Exhibition Painting Prize, 1983

Guinness Peat Aviation Award For Emerging Artists, 1983

Contact Information

Tel: 01-4759514, The Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Chancery Lane, Dublin 8

Websites: http://robertarmstrong.net/site/

 http://www.kevinkavanaghgallery.ie/