BIOGRAPHY

Paul Funge (1944-2011) was born in Gorey, Co Wexford. He studied at the National College of Art and Design under Sean Keating, Maurice MacGonigal and John Kelly, and in 1967, he was awarded an Italian Government Scholarship to study at the Academia dei Belli Arti in Florence.

While still a student, he held his first solo exhibition during the Wexford Opera Festival. As well as developing his own art during his career, he contributed hugely to the development of the Arts in Ireland. He was a founder director of the Project Arts Centre in Dublin, and not long after he founded the Gorey Arts Centre (in the back of the family shop) and Gorey Arts Festival which ran from 1970 to the mid-1980s.

Funge was known for his landscapes, portraits and believed that art of all forms should be available and accessible to everyone.