Micky Donnelly was born in Belfast in 1952 and studied at the University of Ulster from 1976 to 1981 where he earned BA and MA Degrees in Fine Art. From early work that featured Celtic motifs and subjects that bordered on Surrealism, Donnelly’s practice has expanded to encompass mixed media and installation works featuring bird cages, tartan rugs and inflated shapes that sit alongside his paintings and drawings. He is influenced by Japanese gardens, Monet’s lily-pond, oriental ink drawings and the garden beside his studio, and this preoccupation with natural forms is clearly evident in much of his work. Donnelly’s practice involves establishing a balance between random processes and decorative order, often including richly patterned materials stuck directly onto the canvas and overpainted with undulating, natural forms in delicately layered colour.
Micky Donnelly received the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Scholarship at the British School in Rome in 1985/86 and several Arts Council of Northern Ireland bursaries. He is a member of Aosdána. Donnelly has exhibited in solo shows in Ireland, Britain, America, Mexico, Canada and New Zealand, and his work is represented in many public collections in Ireland, including the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Ulster Museum, the Arts Council of Ireland, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, AIB and the OPW. His first novel, Doubletime, was published by Blackstaff Press in April 2001, and has been translated into both Hungarian and German.
Exhibitions with Taylor Galleries:2010
2006 New Paintings
2003 New Paintings and Works on Paper
1998 Reflex Series
1989 Shillelagh Dreaming: Paintings and Drawings