FAMILY MATTERS

Pat Connor, Michael Quane RHA, Johanna Connor

Cnoc Buí

Union Hall, West Cork

20th. August – 6th. September 2026

Family Matters is an exhibition of works of sculpture and drawing by a trio of artists; a dad, a daughter and a husband, because… within this particular conceptual thread of exhibitions at Cnoc Buí,  focusing on families of artists, it is the family connections which have focal relevance.  Questions will undoubtedly flow through this relevance to family connections whilst aesthetic and subjective meaning will flow perhaps with another kind of relevance altogether through the artworks. 

Pat Connor’s ceramic sculpture reveals a deftness of hand with the material through a practiced ability to manipulate its physical properties to his will for more than 50 years.  His figurative works are expressive and replete with emotional content.

Mistaken by our assumptions and caught in the wire of nostalgia, Johanna Connor looks to find herself lost in a thicket of significant meaning, where the traces upon the landscape remain in evidence from the activity of people with their endeavours. 

Michael Quane draws upon the surface of the limestone with a tungsten-carbide-tipped chisel until eventually the loose flabby boulder is drawn ever tighter into a deliberate form.  His subjects enquire subtly of attachment and belonging.