In attendance were author Emily Hourican, Anne Friel (wife of the late Brian Friel), Marie Heaney (wife of the late Seamus Heaney), film director Donald Taylor Black, artists James Hanley, Pauline O’Connell, Anna Campbelland Bernadette Madden, as well as Solomon Gallery artists Orla de Brí, Rachel Joynt, Eamon Colman and Stephanie Hess.
President Higgins and Mrs Sabina Higgins also made a surprise appearance at the launch, which was hosted by gallery owner Tara Murphy, and opened by playwright and director Peter Sheridan.
Behan’s new exhibition “Walking into Eternity” follows on from previous exhibitions “The Way It Is: Ukrainian & Other sculpture” (2022) and “Migrants” (2020). Behan continues to observe and explore themes of emigration and the displacement of people through the lens of Irish history, mythology and literature. He tackles scenes and imagery that reflect the plight of present-day immigrants and refugees, and includes new iterations of Behan’s now-iconic famine ships and oar boats, representing Ireland’s history of migration.
See also: Artistic License – John Behan
A number of new sculptures pay tribute to James Joyce’s Ulysses, from where the exhibition title derives, and offer some humour and light relief from the weight of the exhibition’s more confronting themes.
The exhibition is on until Saturday, November 16; www.solomonfineart.ie.
Click into the gallery to see the guests who attended.
Photographer: Kieran Harnett
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