Solomon is delighted to host a solo exhibition of new work by artist Michael Wann. In this new collection of his distinctive charcoal compositions Wann presents scenes in which terrain and skies are imbued with a sense of foreboding and vulnerability. The Old Grieving Fields is a lament to a landscape in distress.
Through an emotive resonance of light and shade, the mostly unpopulated rural settings in Wann’s compositions are charged with unease and a disquiet of perspective. Smoke rises from distant fields; helicopters hover and night skies are lit by mysterious activity. Wann’s landscapes and patchwork aerial views, heavy with weather, speak of memory and place, of surveillance 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 followed by a Bachelor in Fine Art in 2003. He has exhibited widely in Ireland, including solo exhibitions at the RHA, The Model, Sligo, Custom House, Westport, Solstice, Navan, Draiocht, Dublin and with the Claremorris Gallery, Co. Mayo. A regular exhibitor at the RHA's Annual Exhibition, he was awarded the AXA Insurance Drawing Prize in 2006, the ESB Sean Keating Prize and the 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. In 2023 he was the recipient of a major Visual Arts Bursary Award from the Arts Council of Ireland. His work was acquired by the National Gallery of Ireland in 2023 and subsequently exhibited in their In Real Life exhibition curated by Anne Hodge. In 2024 Wann’s evocative portrait of the late Camille Souter was shortlisted for the AIB Portrait Award at the National Gallery of Ireland and he has recently been shortlisted for the inaugural Sir William Orpen Prize for self portraiture (2025).
Wann’s work is included in public collections such as the National Gallery of Ireland, 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: The Old Grieving Fields
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, An Older Path, 2024€ 5,500.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Mongrel Geometry, 2024€ 5,500.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Landscape on Fire, 2023€ 5,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 1, Approaching Squall, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 2, Great Clouds Appeared, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 3, Night Visions, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 4, Banking Right Along the Barrow, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 5, Fantasy Sky, Late June, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Aerial 6, The Bloodline of Fields, 2024€ 4,300.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, We Follow Rivers, 2024€ 3,000.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Following the Watercourse, 2024€ 3,000.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Mapping the Terrain, 2024€ 3,000.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Approved Landscape #1, 2024€ 2,000.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Approved Landscape #2, 2024€ 2,000.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Meteor, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Contrails, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Unexplained Explosion, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Celestial Bodies Colliding, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Home Fires Burning, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Deep Dark Night, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Eclipse, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Freefall, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Clouds at Night, 2024€ 1,400.00
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Solomon Fine Art - Michael Wann, Footprints, 2024€ 1,400.00
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REVIEWS / PRESS / MEDIA
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The Artist's Well Interview with Michael Wann
February 8, 2025https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3PhgwwPxLk In this episode, we visit the artist Michael Wann on the occasion of his solo show in The Solomon Gallery in Dublin city. Michael was born in Dublin in... -
SUNDAY INDEPENDENT: Michael Wann
What Lies Beneath - Niall MacMonagle January 12, 2025Michael Wann: ‘If you were out walking in the rain, trees swaying, your work should encompass that sensation’ Art: What Lies Beneath Niall MacMonagle Thu 9 Jan 2025 at 02:30... -
Michael Wann shortlisted for this years AIB Portrait Prize
Ireland’s best portraits of 2024: National Gallery of Ireland announces AIB prize shortlistsThe National Gallery of Ireland has revealed the 46 artists shortlisted for this year’s AIB portrait prizes. The shortlist for the AIB Portrait Prize, which aims to show “the breadth... -
The Irish Times: Dublin is full of art in the city this month
Michael Wann: Void Pastoral July 9, 2022Currently exhibiting at the Solomon Fine Art Gallery, next door to the Westbury Hotel on Balfe Street, is the first solo show of recent works by Michael Wann. Entitled Void... -
Michael Wann: Not In Alphabetical Order
Fingal County Council Collection Catalogue June 1, 2019Access the catalogue in full here: http://fingalarts.ie/resources/NiAO2_240x300mm_80pp+Cover_LowRes.pdf -
Michael Wann: Irish Arts Review
Brenda Moore-McCann visits Sligo-based artist Michael Wann (Spring 2016 issue) May 1, 2016IRISH ARTS REVIEW Michael Wann “In a Garden I Once Knew” exhibition Cross Gallery, April 17th -May 7th 2016. We draw to see what we think Brian O’Doherty Eye and... -
Michael Wann: Irish Times Review
by chief critic Aidan Dunne (May 2016) May 16, 2016Visual art: Three different ways to pass the Francis Bacon test A talented trio focus on plants, backwoods scenes and crumbling facades By Aidan Dunne Tue May 3 2016 THE... -
Michael Wann: Meet the Artist
Draoicht, Dublin April 14, 2011Meet the Artist - Michael Wann 14 April 2011 Wann’s work is specifically drawing-based, and juxtaposes arbitrary or transient images of cleared landscape, with more thought provoking depictions of the...
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VIRTUAL 360° TOUR
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360 - virtual tour of the gallery
Clink on the image to access the 360 walk-around of the gallery space -
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
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PUBLICATIONS
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