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Artist Bio
BRIAN LALOR ARTIST & WRITER was born Cork, Ireland, in 1941. He has exhibited his prints and drawings internationally, while his books have been published in many countries. The recipient of numerous awards, he has occupied leadership positions in a wide range of organisations across the associated disciplines of art, architecture, archaeology, arts administration, editing and curating.
He studies art and architecture at the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork, followed by West London College (then Hammersmith College of Art and Design), London, and worked in architecture for a number of years, in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, most notably in Munich and Tel Aviv, in the latter of which he was prize-winner in the international Max Reinhardt Theatre Competition.
In a sideways shift from architecture to archaeology in 1969, he became director of the architectural department of the Hebrew University / Israel Exploration Society excavations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where he made major discoveries in the history of the city, most notably in solving a century-long interpretation of the monumental classical buildings of the area, one of the most significant temple sites in the entire Roman world.
In 1973 he returned to Ireland and set up a print studio outside the village of Ballydehob in West Cork and became involved in the establishment of the Cork Craftsmans’ Guild, a pioneering arts cooperative in Cork city that rapidly developed into one of the major craft organisations in Europe. Over the next fifteen years, he published a succession of books, exhibited drawings, watercolours and etchings in Ireland and abroad in many group and solo shows, and periodically returned to the Middle East to join excavations run by the British School of Archaeology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / CNRS, Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and a number of smaller North American universities.
In 1989 he moved to Dublin, establishing a studio in the Pearse Street Tower, and in 1991 joined Graphic Studio Dublin, the largest and longest-established (1960) print studio in Ireland, of which he would later become Chairman and write a definitive account of its history, Ink-Stained Hands (2003). A number of books on Dublin followed his move to the city, each illustrated by his drawings and woodcuts. A long-term interest in the history of printmaking led to forming a collection of European master prints, (16th to 19th centuries) and subsequently to lecturing on the subject at the National Print Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery. In 2016 he gifted his European print collection to the National Gallery where it was exhibited in the print gallery for a five month run.
With a background in art, architecture, archaeology, literature, and as an author and researcher, he was invited in 1998 to become the General Editor of the Gill & Macmillan / Yale University Press projected Encyclopaedia of Ireland, involving the contributions of 900 Irish-studies academics worldwide which took five years to complete. Critically well received, it won numerous international research awards, went into a number of editions and was a bestseller.
In 2010 he returned to West Cork and currently works from a studio in the countryside outside Ballydehob, most recently exhibiting conté drawings from visits to the southern United States, Barcelona and St Petersburg. He became joint founder-director of Blue House Gallery in Schull, a small commercial art gallery (2012) and founder curator of the Ballydehob Arts Museum (2017), devoted to commemorating the rich tradition of the arts of West Cork since the mid-twentieth century.
In recent years he has collaborated with the ceramic artist, Jim Turner on decorating porcelain vessels. One exhibition of these, The Fertile Crescent (2017) was devoted to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Pots, bowls, plaques, inscriptions, a number of small obelisks as well as two monumental ones, were widely shown in a number of exhibitions. Currently he is working on a major project, 36 Views for Mount Gabriel, an exploration of the dominant mountain landscape of West Cork that rises above the village of Schull.
Artist Bio
BRIAN LALOR ARTIST & WRITER was born Cork, Ireland, in 1941. He has exhibited his prints and drawings internationally, while his books have been published in many countries. The recipient of numerous awards, he has occupied leadership positions in a wide range of organisations across the associated disciplines of art, architecture, archaeology, arts administration, editing and curating.
He studies art and architecture at the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork, followed by West London College (then Hammersmith College of Art and Design), London, and worked in architecture for a number of years, in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, most notably in Munich and Tel Aviv, in the latter of which he was prize-winner in the international Max Reinhardt Theatre Competition.
In a sideways shift from architecture to archaeology in 1969, he became director of the architectural department of the Hebrew University / Israel Exploration Society excavations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where he made major discoveries in the history of the city, most notably in solving a century-long interpretation of the monumental classical buildings of the area, one of the most significant temple sites in the entire Roman world.
In 1973 he returned to Ireland and set up a print studio outside the village of Ballydehob in West Cork and became involved in the establishment of the Cork Craftsmans’ Guild, a pioneering arts cooperative in Cork city that rapidly developed into one of the major craft organisations in Europe. Over the next fifteen years, he published a succession of books, exhibited drawings, watercolours and etchings in Ireland and abroad in many group and solo shows, and periodically returned to the Middle East to join excavations run by the British School of Archaeology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / CNRS, Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and a number of smaller North American universities.
In 1989 he moved to Dublin, establishing a studio in the Pearse Street Tower, and in 1991 joined Graphic Studio Dublin, the largest and longest-established (1960) print studio in Ireland, of which he would later become Chairman and write a definitive account of its history, Ink-Stained Hands (2003). A number of books on Dublin followed his move to the city, each illustrated by his drawings and woodcuts. A long-term interest in the history of printmaking led to forming a collection of European master prints, (16th to 19th centuries) and subsequently to lecturing on the subject at the National Print Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery. In 2016 he gifted his European print collection to the National Gallery where it was exhibited in the print gallery for a five month run.
With a background in art, architecture, archaeology, literature, and as an author and researcher, he was invited in 1998 to become the General Editor of the Gill & Macmillan / Yale University Press projected Encyclopaedia of Ireland, involving the contributions of 900 Irish-studies academics worldwide which took five years to complete. Critically well received, it won numerous international research awards, went into a number of editions and was a bestseller.
In 2010 he returned to West Cork and currently works from a studio in the countryside outside Ballydehob, most recently exhibiting conté drawings from visits to the southern United States, Barcelona and St Petersburg. He became joint founder-director of Blue House Gallery in Schull, a small commercial art gallery (2012) and founder curator of the Ballydehob Arts Museum (2017), devoted to commemorating the rich tradition of the arts of West Cork since the mid-twentieth century.
In recent years he has collaborated with the ceramic artist, Jim Turner on decorating porcelain vessels. One exhibition of these, The Fertile Crescent (2017) was devoted to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Pots, bowls, plaques, inscriptions, a number of small obelisks as well as two monumental ones, were widely shown in a number of exhibitions. Currently he is working on a major project, 36 Views for Mount Gabriel, an exploration of the dominant mountain landscape of West Cork that rises above the village of Schull.
Artist Bio
BRIAN LALOR ARTIST & WRITER was born Cork, Ireland, in 1941. He has exhibited his prints and drawings internationally, while his books have been published in many countries. The recipient of numerous awards, he has occupied leadership positions in a wide range of organisations across the associated disciplines of art, architecture, archaeology, arts administration, editing and curating.
He studies art and architecture at the Crawford Municipal School of Art in Cork, followed by West London College (then Hammersmith College of Art and Design), London, and worked in architecture for a number of years, in the UK, Europe and the Middle East, most notably in Munich and Tel Aviv, in the latter of which he was prize-winner in the international Max Reinhardt Theatre Competition.
In a sideways shift from architecture to archaeology in 1969, he became director of the architectural department of the Hebrew University / Israel Exploration Society excavations at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem where he made major discoveries in the history of the city, most notably in solving a century-long interpretation of the monumental classical buildings of the area, one of the most significant temple sites in the entire Roman world.
In 1973 he returned to Ireland and set up a print studio outside the village of Ballydehob in West Cork and became involved in the establishment of the Cork Craftsmans’ Guild, a pioneering arts cooperative in Cork city that rapidly developed into one of the major craft organisations in Europe. Over the next fifteen years, he published a succession of books, exhibited drawings, watercolours and etchings in Ireland and abroad in many group and solo shows, and periodically returned to the Middle East to join excavations run by the British School of Archaeology, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique / CNRS, Paris, the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C., and a number of smaller North American universities.
In 1989 he moved to Dublin, establishing a studio in the Pearse Street Tower, and in 1991 joined Graphic Studio Dublin, the largest and longest-established (1960) print studio in Ireland, of which he would later become Chairman and write a definitive account of its history, Ink-Stained Hands (2003). A number of books on Dublin followed his move to the city, each illustrated by his drawings and woodcuts. A long-term interest in the history of printmaking led to forming a collection of European master prints, (16th to 19th centuries) and subsequently to lecturing on the subject at the National Print Museum, the National Gallery of Ireland and the Crawford Art Gallery. In 2016 he gifted his European print collection to the National Gallery where it was exhibited in the print gallery for a five month run.
With a background in art, architecture, archaeology, literature, and as an author and researcher, he was invited in 1998 to become the General Editor of the Gill & Macmillan / Yale University Press projected Encyclopaedia of Ireland, involving the contributions of 900 Irish-studies academics worldwide which took five years to complete. Critically well received, it won numerous international research awards, went into a number of editions and was a bestseller.
In 2010 he returned to West Cork and currently works from a studio in the countryside outside Ballydehob, most recently exhibiting conté drawings from visits to the southern United States, Barcelona and St Petersburg. He became joint founder-director of Blue House Gallery in Schull, a small commercial art gallery (2012) and founder curator of the Ballydehob Arts Museum (2017), devoted to commemorating the rich tradition of the arts of West Cork since the mid-twentieth century.
In recent years he has collaborated with the ceramic artist, Jim Turner on decorating porcelain vessels. One exhibition of these, The Fertile Crescent (2017) was devoted to the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean. Pots, bowls, plaques, inscriptions, a number of small obelisks as well as two monumental ones, were widely shown in a number of exhibitions. Currently he is working on a major project, 36 Views for Mount Gabriel, an exploration of the dominant mountain landscape of West Cork that rises above the village of Schull.