‘Dispossessed’ at the Kenny Gallery

The Kenny Gallery in Galway City is hosting a new exhibition of paintings by Bernard Canavan. Dispossessed: Images of the Forgotten Irish was launched on Friday by writer and performer Little John Nee. It will remain on display from Monday-Saturday throughout June in the Liosban Retail Park.

Canavan’s paintings represent what life was like for Irish people who emigrated to England in the 1950s and 60s, His work includes paintings such as: Holyhead-Euston, Waiting for the British Postal Order, Lost Childhood and The Irish Geography Lesson, where the children in the painting are  holding suitcases instead of books.

Canavan recently exhibited in the House of Commons in London. He also received a Presidential Distinguished Service Award for drawing attention to the experiences of the ‘forgotten Irish’ who emigrated to the UK. This award recognises the service given to the country or to Irish communities abroad by those who live outside Ireland.

Bernard Canavan grew up in County Longford in the 1950s. He was sick as a child and only attended school occasionally. He was taught to read by his mother, and got into the habit of reading and drawing – skills which never left him

He emigrated to England with his father when he was nearly 16 and worked as a labourer until the 1960s, when he began to draw for several radical London Underground publications.

In his late 20, he was awarded a university scholarship and spent five years reading philosophy, politics and economics, writing a thesis on Irish rural family structure.

He describes himself as a figurative expressionist in the tradition of Max Beckmann, Francis Bacon and Paula Rego.