The Long Road, charcoal & wash on paper, 50 x 70 cm
The Long Road, charcoal & wash on paper, 50 x 70 cm

Solomon is delighted to host its first solo exhibition of recent works on canvas and paper by artist Michael Wann.  In Void Pastoral, Wann presents us with a new collection of charcoal landscape where the themes of boundary and perimeter are central.

 

In this exhibition we see Wann use landscape as a metaphor and drawing as a vehicle for an underlying augury of environmental anxiety.  Through an emotive resonance of light and shade, the mostly unpopulated 'everyday' rural settings in Wann’s compositions are charged with unease and a disquiet of perspective.  Temporal moments of weather speak of memory and place, of pictorial space, and the mapping of terrain. 

 

Currently based in Sligo, Michael Wann was born in Dublin in 1969.  He studied at Sligo IT, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Art in 1992, and a Bachelor in Fine Art in 2003.  Wann has exhibited widely in Ireland, including solo exhibitions in the RHA, The Model, Sligo, Custom House, Westport, Solstice, Navan, Draiocht, Dublin, and Claremorris Gallery, Co. Mayo.   A regular exhibitor at the RHA's Annual Exhibition, he was awarded the AXA Insurance Drawing Prize in 2006, and the ESB Sean Keating Prize and RHA Silver Medal in 2016.  In 2010 he was selected for the Tom Caldwell Drawing Prize and the Inaugural Rowel Friers Perpetual Trophy at the Royal Ulster Academy's Annual Exhibition; and in 2012 awarded a Merit Prize from the Trustees of The Golden Fleece. 

 

Wann’s work is included in public collections such as the Boyle Civic Collection, Waterford Municipal Collection, Office of Public Works, Mayo County Council, Fingal County Council, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, AXA Insurance and the Ballinglen Archive, as well as private collections in Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.

 

Michael Wann: Void Pastoral