Biography
Fergus Martin was born in Cork, Ireland. He studied painting at Dun Laoghaire School of Art from 1972 – 1976. From 1979 – 1988 he lived and worked in Italy, where he lectured in English Language at The University of Milan.
In 1988, he returned to painting and had his first solo exhibition at Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, in 1990.
In 1991, he attended The New York Studio School of Drawing, Painting and Sculpture. He received awards from The Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York, in 1999 and 2006, and was awarded The Marten Toonder Award by The Arts Council/An Comhairle Ealaion in 1999.
In 2001, he was elected to Aosdana.
In 2008, his sculpture, Steel, was installed at the entrance gates to The Irish Museum of Modern Art, and he had a major exhibition at Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.
In 2010, he won the Curtin O’Donoghue Photography Prize at The RHA Annual Exhibition, Dublin.
In 2014, he was awarded the Irish American Cultural Institute O’Malley Award.
In 2019, Martin had a solo exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Fergus Martin Then and Now
In 2020, his sculpture, Barrel, was installed in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham/Irish Museum of Modern Art. Barrel was commissioned by the Office of Public Works. Also in 2020, his sculpture, Oak, was installed at the International Criminal Court, The Hague. Oak was commissioned by the Department of Foreign Affairs, a gift from the Government of Ireland to the Court.
Solo Exhibitions
2019 Fergus Martin Then and Now, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2016 Fergus Martin New Work, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2014 Outside Inside, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
2011 Fergus Martin Photographs,Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2009 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2008/2009 Fergus Martin, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, Dublin, Ireland
2006 Storm, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2003 Pipe Dreams, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Ireland
2001 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1999 Recent Work, Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, Ireland
1999 New Work, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1997 Six Paintings, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Fergus Martin, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Six Paintings, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France
1996 Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland
1994 New Paintings, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1994 Limerick City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland
1992 Office, Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1990Fergus Martin, Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Selected Group Exhibitions
2020 RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin
2016/2017 The Crawford at the Castle: Three Centuries of Irish Art from a National Collection, Dublin Castle
2014/2015 Trove: Dorothy Cross selects from the National Collections, Irish Museum of Modern Art
2014 Meditation On Plates, Casino Marino, Dublin
2014 IMMA Collection: Conversations, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2012/2013 Into The Light: Thr Arts Council – 60 Years of Supporting the Arts,
2010 With words like smoke, Chelsea Space, London
2010 The nature of things, Galerie Le Petit Port, Leiden, Holland
2010 Sacred, Enniskillen Castle Museums, Enniskillen; surface & reality, Kilkenny Arts Festival, Kilkenny; Dust in the air suspended, County Museum, Clonmel; 2010 RHA Annual Exhibition, RHA, Dublin
2009 The way things are, Sydney Non Objective, Sydney, Australia
2009 Terror and the Sublime, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
2008 Discussions in Contemporary Sculpture, The Dock, Carrick-on-Shannon, Ireland
2008 Yo, Mo’ Modernism, Centre for Contemporary Non-objective Art, Belgium
2006 Painting by Other Means; Non-figurative Works from the Collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Wales
2005 Four Now, Lewis Glucksman Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2005 Internationale Kunst in der Südwestkurve, Badischen Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany
2004/05 C2, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2004 Dublin Connection: Paul Doran, Fergus Feehily, Fergus Martin, Galerie Michael Sturm, Stuttgart, Germany
2004 September, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
2004 In the time of shaking, Irish Artists For Amnesty International, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
2004 L’Art d’être au Monde, Melle, France
2001 Richard Gorman, John Graham, William McKeown, Fergus Martin, Fenton Gallery, Cork, Ireland
2000 A Measured Quietude, David Winton Bell Gallery, Providence, US
1999 Drawing Project : Artists Respond to The Burlington Cartoon, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast, CIRCA Magazine
1999 ContemporaryWorks on Paper, Green On Red Gallery, Dublin
1999 A Measured Quietude, Berkeley Art Museum, California, US
1999 A Measured Quietude, The Drawing Center, New York, US
1999 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Jeanne Greenberg
1998 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Paul M.O’Reilly
1998 Artists in Print 1998, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1997 Small Paintings, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
1996 Fergus Martin & Corban Walker, Nuova Icona Gallery, Venice, Italy
1995 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Maria De Corral
1994 EV+A, Limerick City Gallery of Art, selected by Jan Hoet
Awards
2014 Irish American Cultural Institute O’Malley Award
2010 Curtin O’Donoghue Photography Prize, RHA Annual Exhibition
2006 The Pollock Krasner Foundation, New York
1999 The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, New York
1999 The Marten Toonder Award, The Arts Council of Ireland
1999 The Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary
1999 EV+A Open Award
1996/94 The Arts Council of Ireland Visual Arts Bursary
1996 Dublin Corporation Visual Arts Bursary
Public Collections
National Gallery of Ireland
The Irish Museum of Modern Art
The Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane
Crawford Art Gallery, Cork
Limerick City Gallery of Art
The Arts Council of Ireland
The Office of Public Works
The National Self-Portrait Collection
Selected Bibliography
Catherine Marshall: Art and Architecture of Ireland Volume V: Twentieth Century, Royal Irish Academy, 2014
Cristín Leach Hughes: The daze of awe, The Sunday Times, 15 July, 2012
Cristín Leach Hughes: The Sunday Times, 20 March 2011
Barbara Dawson: We are the subject in Fergus Martin, 2009, pp 9
David Godbold: A moment in the bedroom, in Fergus Martin, 2009, pp 10 - 15
Andreas Pincewski: What else is there? The presence of absence, in Fergus Martin, 2009, pp 16 - 21
Gerry McCarthy: Hidden Shallows in The Sunday Times, 26 October 2009
Katy FitzPatrick, Jessica O’Donnell: Abstract artist in focus: Fergus Martin, Art in The Classroom educational supplement with The Irish Times, April 2009
Kate Butler: Artist in residence, Image magazine, October 2008
Robbie O’Halloran: September: Green on Red Gallery. Circa Magazine Online review, 2004
Aidan Dunne: A head start in digital imagery in The Irish Times, 31 May 2001
Dorothy Walker: Paving the way for architecture in The Sunday Times, 4 April 1999
Caiomhin Mac Giolla Leith: A Measured Quietude, The Drawing Center New York, 1999
Mark Ewart: Fergus Martin Recent Works, The Irish Times August 1999
Paul M O’Reilly: Kingdom of Heaven exhibition catalogue, 1999
Dorothy Walker: Modern Art in Ireland,, 1997, pp 168 – 170
Luke Clancy: Fergus Martin at Project Arts Centre, The Irish Times,2 August 1997
Caiomhin Mac Giolla Leith: The Size of Vision in Fergus Martin: Six Paintings for Le Confort Moderne, 1996, pp 6 - 7
Luke Clancy, Fergus Martin, The Irish Times, 8 June 1996
Carlos Herrera: L’imaginaire d’une ile atlantique, L’actualite Poitou-Charentes, July 1996
La Nouvelle Republique: Chauds les marrons, July 1996
Anemone G Bianchi: Fergus Martin & Corban Walker at Nuova Icona, Venice, Text, October 1996
Brian Coates: Fergus Martin, The Irish Times, 12 October 1994
Brian Fallon: Fergus Martin, The Irish Times, 20 November 1992
Martin & Hobbs
Martin & Hobbs was a collaborative project between the painter Fergus Martin and the photographer Anthony Hobbs. They joined forces in 2001 out of a desire by both artists to explore new ways of experiencing the human figure as a living entity, and to bring to this their different experience as painter and photographer. They exhibited in Venice, Dublin, Brussels, and Melle, France. Their work is in the collections of The Arts Council of Ireland and The Irish Museum of Modern Art
Solo Exhibitions
2013 Frieze, Courtyard Irish Museum of Modern Art
2003 My Paradise is here, Oratorio di San Ludovico, Venice
My Paradise Is Now, Green on Red Gallery, Dublin
Group Exhibitions
2013 Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art & Francis Bacon’s Studio, BOZAR Centre of Fine Arts, Brussels
2013 La VIe Biennale Internationale d’Art Contemporain de Melle, France
2012/2013 Into The Light: Thr Arts Council – 60 Years of Supporting the Arts, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
2005 EV+A, Selected by Dan Cameron, Limerick City Gallery, Limerick
2005 The Rooms, St. Johns, Newfoundland
2004 Tir na N-Og, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Awards
2003 The Cultural Relations Committee, The Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism
Public Collections
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
The Arts Council, Dublin
Collection Ville de Melle, France