Icons II
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Icons II -
‘Before and After’ Diptych 20cms x 30cms
ICONS II
Paul began making icons in 2006 after I graduated from UCD, where he first encountered them having read History of Art. He loves their simplicity, and like a magpie, and is drawn to their glimmering gold. He likes the fact that they appear as self-contained units, housed in their specially constructed frame. At UCD it was pointed out that icons are an early version of Conceptual Art, disregarding realism and emphasising the message. Paul toured Europe and saw wonderful collections, especially in Crete, the Courtauld Institute in London and our own National Gallery. In truth, he encountered icons as a child being taken to Catholic chapels and lighting a penny candle. Although Paul isa devout atheist, or technically an agnostic, a word that sounds like he’s sitting on the fence, the iconography of Catholicism has stayed with hiim and he enjoys the pageantry and beauty of church art.
Commenting on his work Paul says, “Much church art was made to illustrate church doctrine to illiterate viewers. Much of it was directed at women, how to be virtuous and to know their place in society. The influence of the church has thankfully declined in my lifetime and secularism is the dominant code for living. What interests me is how people now find their moral compass, and it is not the Humanist ideal one might think. TV advertising, magazines and social media bombard us with opinion on how to life the ethical life. Every action becomes an ethical action: to buy fair trade, go vegan, get in shape, be a good parent, breast is best but if you don’t breast feed, here’s the perfect formula. This is the conceptual basis of Icons II. Some of these icons were shown in Axis Ballymun in 2017 and this exhibition the addition of several more. I had been looking for other venues to exhibit the icons and the Courthouse Arts Centre, with its church-like appearance and the footfall generated by community activity, is an ideal place to host them.”
Paul MacCormaic was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1961and continues to live and work there. He grew up in Finglas, a suburb on the city's north side, which was an amazing laboratory of adventure for an enquiring mind. Just 200 meters from his council house family home, began the fields and hedgerows of North County Dublin where he climbed trees, dammed ditches and observed nature. Finglas fed his curiosity for all things scientific, including physics, zoology and anthropology.
Paul had his first solo exhibition in Saint Andrew's Lane Theatre in 1991. This was followed by Refrigerate After Opening in 1997 at the School Yard Theatre in Charleville County Cork and was the first show in which subject of food and consumption would become a continuous theme with his work.
In 2002 The Daffodil Gallery, Skerries, hosted 'A Brick a Week', a collection of paintings that documented the DIY holiday homes of North County Dublin, in places like Portrane, Donabate and Rush. Most of them have now fallen into ruin.
As a mature student MacCormaic graduated from UCD, having read History of Art and then went on to Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT) graduating in 2006.
Since graduating, he has been a full-time artist and part-time teacher of painting classes in NCAD and Art History in local schools.
Awards and Achievements
2001, First prize at the Oireachtas Exhibition, Town Hall, Dún Laoghaire.
2004, Arts Council Travel Award
2006, First Prize painting, Catalyst Student Awards, Belfast
Purchases by Meath County Council, Louth County Council, UCD and IADT.
Short-listed for the Golden Fleece Award 2012 and the Zurich Portrait Prize, 2019.