The F.E. McWilliam Gallery is delighted to present a major survey exhibition of the work of Belfast based painter Clement McAleer. The exhibition will showcase a range of selected paintings made over fifty years. The exhibition will run until early February.
Born in Co. Tyrone, McAleer studied in Belfast, Canterbury and the Royal College of Art and was based in Liverpool for 25 years before returning to Northern Ireland in 2003.
Riann Coulter, Curator and Manager at F.E McWilliam Gallery, commented:
“It is with great pleasure that we unveil Clement McAleer’s exhibition at the Gallery. McAleer’s work, captures the restless, shifting aspects of nature where cloud or water, land or sea, meet and merge. This exhibition is not just a display of paintings; it’s an invitation to journey through the landscapes of McAleer’s mind.’’
The Irish coast is an enduring theme throughout McAleer’s work and travels in Europe and America have also inspired several pieces, particularly the series of railway paintings in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands. Recent reliefs, present abstracted landscapes glimpsed through windows or mediated by sculptural features reminiscent of Renaissance altarpieces.
McAleer has exhibited extensively in Dublin, Belfast, Liverpool and London and his work is included in public and corporate collections such as the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ulster Museum, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Arts Councils of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the European Parliament, Brussels. An artist appreciated by his peers, but little known by the wider public. This exhibition provides a rare opportunity to appreciate the quality and scope of McAleer’s work.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with an extensive essay on Clement’s work by curator and art historian Brian McAleer. This can be purchased online or at the Gallery.
The Gallery is open for visitors Monday – Saturday 10am – 5pm, free admission. For more information please visit; visitarmagh.com/places-to-explore/f-e-mcwilliam-gallery
