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Michael Flaherty 

Michael Flaherty was born in Cloghane on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry in 1950. Michael studied in Maynooth, Cork and Sligo before returning to Kerry in 1989. Here he developed his distinctive style of painting to convey his love of the Kerry landscape.

His work has featured in many group and solo shows around Ireland, Britain, Europe and the USA. His first exhibition with The Kenny Gallery was in 1990.  His work is represented in public and private collections including Irish Life, ESB, Dublin University, Kerry Food, various Government Departments, New York University and Commerz Bank of Frankfurt.

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Images are Mick Flaherty’s language, which he creates with fiery poetic incisiveness.  His energetic brushstrokes freeze-frame nature, form or matter in motion.  He speaks in spirited, lustrous colour.

He paints the wind harrying the waves, frostbiting the furze and “the murmur of stones”. His paintings can be sensuous and vibrant, august and timeless, meditative and still; and they are, also, gifts of hope.

And the painting calls to its buyer.  It chooses us.  It is we who are owned.

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On Flaherty...

Aidan Dunne - Irish Times Art Critic. Kilcock Art Gallery, 2000

"Michael Flaherty is best known for his landscapes, spontaneous, lyrical compositions that bring to mind aspects of the work of artists as diverse as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Henry and Sean Mc Sweeney. He is uninhibited in use of paint, that is of the physical stuff, the pigment itself, which he has on occasion worked in layers of imposingly thick impasto, and of course in his use of paint as colour."

"Flaherty's work clearly doesn't set out merely to record a scene in terms of its appearance, it enacts the excitement of the sexual experience of an environment and, equally, excitement of painting."

Green Lane Gallery, Dingle.

"Michael effectively conveys a sense of panoramic space by simplifying his subjects rather than getting bogged down by fussy details. Elemental shapes saturated with intensive colour - red, blues, greens, lilacs and pinks, earthen colours vary according to the changing conditions, communicating to us not only the artist's perceptions but also his powerful feelings for his native Dingle peninsula."

RTÉ Aug 1999 - Review by John Hunt

"This is a remarkable exhibition. Incredibly fresh, incredibly instant. He captures very quickly, scenes which he's very, very familiar with. He's been seeping up this landscape for quite some time, but when he parks the canvas by the side of the road, or the middle of the field, or wherever, zoom, he's in there and out in jig time. Remarkably few mistakes, but he captures that instant to perfection...

Remarkably assured technique... bright pictures, just celebrating his local landscape... Then there are darker ones, like the cliffs at Dunquin, deep black, bits of navy deep sea, then this forbidding cliff face. This is the power of nature: you don't mess with that.

The painting of the wave is dark, frightening. Nolde did famous wave many years ago, but this guy is doing his own thing. He owes nothing to nobody, but he's a very self-assured painter, whether it's these bright, happy scenes which sucks us in to enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the landscape, he has us under control. Remarkable pictures"

Exhibition History

His work has featured in many group and solo shows around Ireland, Britain, Europe and the USA. His work is represented in a wide variety of public and private collections including Irish Life, ESB, Dublin University, Kerry Food, various Government Departments, New York University and Commerz Bank of Frankfurt, as well as others listed below:

Education:

  Educated in St Brendan's, Killarney, County Kerry.

1973 B.A. Degree, University College Cork / H.Dip. Ed. National, University, Maynooth

1973-77 Municipal Art College, Cork & Sligo Regional Technical College

Exhibitions

1979-82 Travelling and exhibiting in Scotland and Ireland

1985-86 Peacock Theatre, Dublin, exhibition to coincide with run of W.B. Yeats Plays

1986 I.C.A.F. London, agent-Ginnel Gallery, Manchester

1988 "Artist and the Bomb" exhibition, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Kilmainham

1988 Hendricks Gallery, Dublin, solo Exhibition "La Revolution", exhibition, curated by Kerlin Gallery

1990-94 Kenny Gallery, Galway. Two person exhibition

1990 Sligo Art Gallery, Solo Exhibition

1991 Listowel Writers week, Solo Exhibition

1992-01 Kilcock Art Gallery, Kilcock, Co Kildare. Solo Exhibitions

1993 Royal Hibernian Academy

1994 Grant Fine Art, Antrim. Solo Exhibition

1995-01 Kenny Gallery Galway, Solo Exhibitions

1995 Glucksman Ireland House, New York University, New York, curated by Kilcock Art Gallery

1995 Ulster Academy

1996 Grant Fine Art, Kilcock, Co Kildare. Solo Exhibitions 1996 Cork, Arts Society, Solo Exhibition

1996 Guinness Hop Store- Three person exhibition 1996 Gateway to Art- Dublin Airport

1996 Sligo Art Gallery

1997 Gateway to Art-Dublin Airport. / Vanguard Gallery, Macroom, Co.Cork - solo exhibition

1998 Grant Fine Art, Kilcock, Co Kildare. Solo Exhibition

1998 Listowel writers week

1998 "Profile 1V", Siamsa Tire, Tralee, Co Kerry

1999 Greenlane Gallery, Dingle - Solo exhibition

2000 Siamsa Tire, Tralee "Heads" - Solo exhibition

2000 Lavit Gallery, Co Cork - Solo exhibition

2000 RDS, Dublin

2001 The Bluecoats Theatre, Sligo

Collections:

ABN Amro

AIB Group, Dublin

AIB New York

Arthur Anderson & Co

Avonmore Plc

Brian Burns Collection, California, U.S.A.

Bausch & Lomb, Waterford

Central Bank

Colourtech Computing Ltd

DAIWA Bank Plc, New York

Department of an Taoiseach

Department of an Tanaiste

Dock Holdings Ltd

Dublin City University

E.S.B - Electricity Supply Board

Government Offices

Guinness Peat Aviation

I.B.E.C.

International Company Services (Ireland) Ltd

Irish Intercontinental Bank

Irish Life

Irish Management Institute

Irish Permanent Building Society

Kerry Foods

Lee Strand, Co. Kerry

Merrill Lynch Corporate Finance

National Portrait Collection, University of Limerick

National Treasury Management Agency

New York University, Washington Square

Shannon Development

Sovereign International Co.

St Lukes Hospital

U.S. Ambassador Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith

Ulster Investment Bank

United Drug

Vincent Ferguson Collection

Private Collections in Ireland and around the world