Peter Burns’ paintings address the lost soul, the lone wayfarer, and the anti-hero. The solitary struggle to comprehend the world that looms over us, overpowers us and seals our fate to be ever a stranger in a stranger land. He combines classical, biblical and 20th century sci-fi to present storylines that are at once familiar and unsettling. His protagonists eschew the bodily ideals of much of art history’s statuesque depiction and owe more to Robert Crumb and the spirit of Charlie Chaplin – they are anti-heroes caught up in the epic and awesome myths and legends of Western tradition.
Ronnie Hughes is one of Ireland’s most dynamic abstract painters. Hughes’ elegant and poised works are executed with complex technical skill yet retain a lightness of touch. While his finished paintings display a diversity of styles, at heart they share a common concern with the lived experience, and what Hughes has described as “the beauty, the fragility and the violence of being.”