‘Tell the Village’ presents a selection of new paintings continuing the use of the domestic setting and the architecture of the artist’s home as a vehicle for his practice.
‘There is a twist in the new works, a deeper concern. I see these images as a collection of warnings, like an unelected town crier. It is through this cosy prism of our family life that the works are encroached with the threat we all feel from surveillance, political uncertainties and a hyperattentive internet scape. The new paintings are lettered with interruptions, and sub narratives. Offering the viewer a menu or a network of imagery mimicking the way we read information online’ – Brian Harte.
Brian Harte balances energetic painterly abstraction with tightly composed interiors, drawing conceptual inspiration from various cultural figures such as Franz Kafka, Philip Guston, The Brothers Quay, and Albert Oehlen. The foundation of family life provides a familiar starting point, yet the works quickly evolve into something else. They are not straightforward portraits, but rather a reinterpretation of life imbued with serious themes.
The strength of these artworks lies in the invitation they extend to the viewer to actively engage. They stimulate self-reflection and interpretation, encouraging the viewer to find their own meaning in the exciting balance between the real and the fantastical. Between sketched and completed, a process that resonates with the tradition of British painting.
Brian Harte (IE, 1978) lives and works in Kinsale (IE). He graduated with the highest honors from the Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork and has received the Arts Council of Ireland’s Project Award twice. In November 2025, he had his first museum solo at Butler Gallery, Kilkenny (IE). Recent solo exhibitions include: ‘Tell the Village’ (2026), TATJANA PIETERS, Ghent (BE), ‘To the Harbour Place’, Molesworth Gallery (2025), Dublin, Ireland; ‘F.I.O.P.N.’ (2024), TATJANA PIETERS, Ghent (BE); ‘After Image’ (2023), Simchowitz Gallery, West Hollywood (USA); ‘Return of the Hawthorn’ (2022–23), MAKI Gallery, Tokyo (JP); ‘House Rules’ (2022), TATJANA PIETERS, Ghent (BE); ‘Everything You Touch’ (2020–21), GNYP Gallery, Berlin (DE).
Harte’s work is part of various international private & public collections, including Butler Gallery, Kilkenny (IE), Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg (DE), Crawford Municipal Gallery, the Contemporary Irish Art Society, University College Cork, the Bank of Ireland, the Arts Council of Ireland, and most recently the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland. Brian Harte is represented by TATJANA PIETERS, Ghent (BE), Simchowitz Gallery, Los Angeles (USA), and MAKI Gallery, Tokyo (JP).
