DERMOT McCARTHY

“In the 1970’s I met Dermot when he worked as a welder in Liebherr, Killarney. He brought along his work which has the same quality to this day of dreamlike minglings, fairy tale stories, countless stories in one single painting. No doubt, one could live with a Dermot McCarthy and go on finding meanings and stories for the rest of one’s life. I feel all brilliant artists have in common an unconscious flow onto the paper of sculpture, something they hardly understand themselves, and because of this unfaltered flow, we the audience identify again in an unconscious manner, Dermot’s work feeding this part of us.

Pauline Bewick

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“The world Dermot McCarthy brings us into seems settled in every strange detail yet arriving there is as much a surprise to the artist as it is to the viewer. The artist describes his method of working; ´I don´t have any preconceived idea of where I´m going to but I sense when I´ve made a wrong turning…which means erasing lots of lines…the pencil is like the metaphor for ´the white walking stick´ as used by the visually impaired…I blunder my way along but with the belief that everything will work out fine in the end.´ This is a good description of how many artists´ work but what is extraordinary is where Dermot McCarthy arrives. His landscapes are clearly hard to believe yet they are revealed with such precision and conviction that one is convinced that they have existed - or that they might. This is illusion, but then so is all art. What is interesting about Dermot McCarthy’s work is his willingness to enter this unknown land of the mind which, notwithstanding the surrealist look, is a very radical form of art making. (It is in fact what Surrealism aimed for before it got onto the L.P. covers.)”

Noel Sheridan, Director of the National College of Art & Design, Dublin.

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Dermot McCarthy worked on a Mural in Brosna for Kerry County Council’s Water Treatment Services. The mural concept was agreed upon as a means of bringing greater awareness of the water service to the area, and to allow the children to explore what it meant to them, whilst gaining a significant art work for the area. Dermot is an excellent artist and is capable of inspiring those he works with; he is very good at facilitating others to explore their creativity. The local children contributed to parts of the mural. All the work began with the theme of water. Importantly the children had the opportunity to work with an artist; to see both the creative and the technical sides of creating art.

Dermot also facilitated some painting workshops for Children during the Killarney 250 celebrations which celebrated a painting weekend. The feedback by the Killarney 250 executive, was excellent from those who had the opportunity to learn from Dermot, to experience a true artist and be inspired by him.s
Kate Kennelly, Arts Officer, Kerry County Council.

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Solo Exhibitions
Painted Parables 1 Frank Lewis Gallery
1990 Painted parables 2 Temple Bar Gallery
1996 Solo Show Kirby’s Steakhouse, Tralee
1999 Circus of Life Wellspring Gallery, Tralee

Group Shows
Annually at Frank Lewis Gallery, Killarney
1975 Listowel Writers Week Art Exhibition
1982 Illustrations in Plakton Literary Magazine
1982 Included in Contemporary Irish Art by Roderick Knowles
1983 Group Show Taylor Gallery
1985 Listowel International Print Biennial
1989 Birds on Arts Council Travelling Exhibition
1990 Southern Artists, Cork
1991 Western Artists, Galway
1993 Scoip ’93, Siamsa Tíre, Tralee
1994 Homecomings, Kerry Airport, Farranfore
1995 Samhlaíocht Chiarraí, Siamsa Tire, Tralee
1995 Iontas, Sligo
1996 National Sculpture Factory
1996 Vanguard Gallery, Macroom
1996 Illustrations in Writing from Ireland by Valerie Quinlivan,
Cambridge University Press
1997 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
1997 Chúige Chiarraí (5 Artists from Kerry), Siamsa Tire,
Tralee
1997 Tig Filí, Cork
1997 Wellspring Gallery, Tralee, Co. Kerry
1997 Annascaul Group Exhibition, Co. Kerry
1997 Frank Lewis Gallery, 5 Printmakers Group Show
1999 Frank Lewis Gallery, 5 Printmakers Group Show