Kevin Atherton (born 1950) is an International artist from the Isle of Man who holds Irish citizenship, after twenty years of living and working in Ireland he is now based in Hastings on the south coast of England. His practice includes performance, sculpture, film and video, installation and site-specific public art. [1]
Atherton is Manx (mother's maiden name: Clague) born in the Isle of Man in 1950. Atherton is proud to be Manx but also to hold Irish citizenship. [2] Educated at the Isle of Man College of Art-now University College Isle of Man from 1968 to 1969, and at the Fine Art Department of Leeds Polytechnic from 1969 to 1972. [1] In 2009 Atherton completed his PhD in the Visual Culture Faculty at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin (NCAD) a chapter of which was published in 2012 by FLOOD (Ire) as the book Auto-Interview. Atherton's mother Elizabeth (née Clague) was a tailor and furrier and his father William a postman.[ citation needed ] Raised as a Roman Catholic Atherton is an atheist and a socialist.
After living and working in Dublin and in Inistioge in Co Kilkenny Atherton returned to live in the UK in 2020 having originally moved to Dublin with his late wife (married in Worcestershire 1977), the educationalist Vicky Robinson (1950-2005)in 1999. Atherton lived and worked in London from 1975 - 1999, teaching part-time at The Slade School of Fine Art (UCL), the Royal College of Art and Middlesex Polytechnic having first been an invigilator at the Whitechapel Gallery for five years. [3] Most notably he was the Head of Department of Alternative Media at Chelsea College of Art, which later; when it merged with Print Making, then under the leadership of Jeff Edwards, became Combined Media. Arriving in Dublin in 1999 Atherton, as the inaugural Head of the Fine Art Media Department at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD), wrote the BA Fine Art Media pathway and the ground-breaking Virtual Realities MA course. He has exhibited and performed throughout the world including at the Museum of Modern Art San Francisco (SFMOMA), The Museum of Modern Art Vienna (MUMOK) and at Tate Britain. His two-screen video installation In Two Minds (1978-2014) is in the collection of the Irish Museum of Modern Art Dublin.
Atherton had a one-man show at London's Serpentine Gallery from March to May 1988. [4]
In 1992, Atherton's statue The Compleat Angler was erected on Chocolate Island, in the River Kennet where that river once flowed through the Huntley & Palmers factory in Reading. It is intended to commemorate the people of Reading who worked in the factory. [5]
In November 2016, his artwork Platforms Piece , comprising three bronze sculptures of commuters on the platforms of Brixton railway station, was given listed status by Historic England. It was commissioned by British Rail in 1986, and two of the figures are believed to be the "first public sculptural representations of black British people in the UK". [6]
The Isle of Man, also known as Mann, is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The government of the United Kingdom is responsible for the isle's military defence and represents it abroad.
The Isle of Man had become physically separated from Great Britain and Ireland by 6500 BC. It appears that colonisation took place by sea sometime during the Mesolithic era. The island has been visited by various raiders and trading peoples over the years. After being settled by people from Ireland in the first millennium AD, the Isle of Man was converted to Christianity and then suffered raids by Vikings from Norway. After becoming subject to Norwegian suzerainty as part of the Kingdom of Mann and the Isles, the Isle of Man later became a possession of the Scottish and then the English crowns.
Manx, also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Gaelic language of the insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family. Manx is the historical language of the Manx people.
Declan McGonagle is a well-known figure in Irish contemporary art, holding positions as director at the Orchard Gallery in Derry, the first director at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, and as director of the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. He writes, lectures and publishes regularly on art and museum/gallery policy issues, and curates exhibitions.
Sir Michael Craig-Martin is an Irish-born contemporary conceptual artist and painter. He is known for fostering and adopting the Young British Artists, many of whom he taught, and for his conceptual artwork, An Oak Tree. He is an Emeritus Professor of Fine Art at Goldsmiths. His memoir and advice for the aspiring artist, On Being An Artist, was published by London-based publisher Art / Books in April 2015.
Thomas Francis O'Rahilly was an influential Irish scholar of the Celtic languages, particularly in the fields of historical linguistics and Irish dialects. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and died in Dublin in 1953. He is the creator of O'Rahilly's historical model, which has since been discredited.
The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of the most important Irish artists, designers and art educators have studied or taught in the college. NCAD has always been located in central Dublin, and in 1980 it relocated to the historic Liberties area. The College has around 950 full-time students and a further 600 pursuing part-time courses, and NCAD's students come from more than forty countries. NCAD is a Recognised College of University College Dublin. It is also a member of the European League of Institutes of the Arts.
The Isle of Man is not part of the United Kingdom, but to a large extent its relations with other countries are handled by the United Kingdom.
Patrick Hickey was an Irish printmaker, painter, artist and architect who founded the Graphic Studio Dublin in 1960.
Harry Thubron OBE was an English artist and art teacher. He made radical innovations in art education which are still controversial today.
Heysham Port is situated by the village of Heysham, Lancashire, England. The harbour ships mainly roll-on/roll-off freight with one passenger service run by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which operates a twice daily sailing to Isle of Man. There are three freight routes run by Seatruck Ferries and Stena Line which all sail to Ireland daily. The passenger terminal has a rail service which links to Lancaster via Morecambe. Also adjacent to the dock site is a Heysham nuclear power station which was built between 1970 and 1988.
Ronan Walsh who represented Ireland at the 1988 Art Junction in Nice and has exhibited work throughout Europe and North America.
Yn Çheshaght Ghailckagh, also known as the Manx Language Society and formerly known as Manx Gaelic Society, was founded in 1899 in the Isle of Man to promote the Manx language. The group's motto is Gyn çhengey, gyn çheer.
Alison Pilkington is an Irish artist. She graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art Painting and Printmaking from Sligo RTC in 1989 and with a BA Hons in Fine Art Painting from The National College of Art and Design, Dublin in 1990. She is a lecturer in Painting at IADT Dun Laoghaire, a Board Member of The Model Arts and Niland Gallery, Sligo and Co – Editor of ‘The Fold’ publication with Cora Cummins, a publishing platform for invited artists to consider various themes. In 2012 she won a British Institution award for painting at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London. In the same year she was shortlisted for the Marmite Painting Prize, which toured the UK from December 2012 to June 2013. In 2013 Pilkington was a Prizewinner in the 5th International ArtSlant Prize.
NIVAL (National Irish Visual Arts Library) is a public research resource which is dedicated to the documentation of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Irish visual art and design. It collects, stores and makes available for research documentation of Irish art and design in all media. NIVAL's collection policy encompasses Irish art and design from the entire island, Irish art and design abroad, and non-Irish artists and designers working in Ireland. NIVAL is sustained by material contributions from artists, arts organisations and arts workers. Information is also acquired from galleries, cultural institutions, critics, the art and design industries, and national and local authorities responsible for the visual arts. NIVAL is housed on the campus of the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin.
Shane Keisuke Berkery is an Irish-Japanese contemporary artist based in Dublin, Ireland. His cultural background has been a major influence on his work and is a frequent theme in his paintings. Berkery primarily works out of his studio in Dublin.
James MacCarthy was an Irish sculptor and painter. He is best known for his figurative work in bronze, as well as natural and marine subjects in copper and limestone. MacCarthy's sculpture range from small table top pieces to large public and corporate art works. Examples of his statues, monuments and plaques can be seen around Cork and Ireland, including a life-size bronze sculpture of Jack Lynch, Leader of Fianna Fáil and Irish Taoiseach, located in Blackpool, Cork.
Pauline Cummins is an Irish sculptor, painter, performance and video artist. She was a lecturer at the National College of Art and Design until her retirement from NCAD.
Dr John Clague was a Manx physician and a collector of Manx music, songs, dances, and customs.
Barbara WarrenRHA was an Irish painter. She was a member of Aosdána, an elite Irish association of artists.
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