My paintings stem from a deep interest in nature and how it affects our emotions. I love exploring the relationship between shapes and colour tones as this evokes a huge variety of emotional experiences from observers. There’s something powerful about this. Something transcendental
Modern society has an obsession with technology. At times, this obsession can disrupt our connection with nature. We forget the healing powers of the natural world and this can cause many problems for us. My artwork is a reminder for us all (myself included) to reconnect with nature, and ultimately, to reconnect with ourselves
at Graham Hunter Gallery12th to 25th July
STUDIED AT…
Served a Screen Printing Technician Apprenticeship under Indentures (1977-1980)
London College of Printing- City and Guilds Screen Printing (1977-1980)
Mary Ward, Art access (1997)
Chelsea College of Art and Design- B.A. Fine Art Honours (1998-2003)
JOINT EXHIBITIONS
Westminster Open, St Martin in the Fields, Trafalgar Square (1998)
Chelsea College of Art (1999)
London Art Fair “Art 2000” (2000-2004)
New York Art Fair, “Work’s on paper” (2002)
V&A Museum “Inspired by…” (2002)
Berkeley Square “Fayre in the square” exhibition (2002)
The Nunnery Gallery (2002)
Orangery, Holland Park (1999)
“Marylebone” (1999)
Swiss Embassy, “Graffiti: Concrete or wallpaper” (2001)
Adam Gallery “New Contemporaries” (Sept 2002)
Palm Beach Art Fair, Florida “Artpalmbeach” (Jan 2003)
London Art Fair “Art 2003” (Jan 2003)
Diorama Gallery “Artists With Different Visions” (August 2003)
Commonwealth Institute “20/21 British Art Fair” (September 2003)
London Art Fair .(2005)
New York Art Fair (2005)
Sense & Sensuality Royal College (2005)
Sense Sensuality Bank Side Gallery (2006)
The Affordable Art Fair (2007
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
A&D Gallery- “Surface Tension” (2001)
Fresh Art (27th -29th July 2001)
Tricycle Gallery- “Art of Patience“(2001)
Adam Gallery, Bath (2002)
Marks & Spencer Head office, Baker Street (September 2002)
Moorfields eye hospital (2002) John Brown Citrus Publishing (April 2003)
Apartment 195, Kings Road, Chelsea. (June 2003)
Gallery 102“Threaded Bliss” (February 2004)
London Irish Centre “Work rest & Play” (March 2012)
Holocaust memorial drawing artwork Kol Chai Synagogue (January 2015)
Playground Theater Lion King Production Ladbroke London: creating design back drop and props (June 2018)
Kensington Decorative Fair at Tabernacle Notting Hill (London (October 2018)
ART AWARDS
Marks & Spencer Fine Art (1998 &1999)
Fresh Art, Special Feature artist London Design center (2001)
Victoria & Albert Museum Inspired Competition Drawing & Painting Prize (2002)
Sense & Sensuality Blind Art Purchase Prize (2005)
MEDIA COVERAGE
BBC Live- Amanda Hussain’s ‘Gallery Show Pick of the Day’ (April 2001)
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4’In-Touch’ featuring ‘Walk on’ touch paintings (10th April 2001)
Interviewed on BBC Radio 4 ‘Profile of an Artist’ (July 2002)
(Tuesday 17th September 2002)
Interviewed BBC London Robert Elms Show (March 2004)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Contact” Dyslexia magazine (May 2001)
“Briefing” magazine for the London Institute (December 2001)
The London Institute Magazine (December 2001)
“Ford Mobility” magazine (June 2002)
Victoria & Albert Museum‘s “Inspired by” Magazine (May 2004)
Irish World Newspaper (March 2012)
Irish Post Newspaper (March 2012)
CRITIQUE
Spinner Bruno, Swiss Ambassador- “Pollock did not as good, but he was first.”
Professor Windy Dryden- “I could say that I liked Mike Cahillane’s art for the dexterity of touch and his almost psychotic attention to detail. I could even say I like his art because it encapsulates a postmodern perspective on modern malaise. I could say these things, but I won’t because I would be talking b******s. Put simply I like Mike’s art because every time I look at his painting’s, my spirits are lifted- nothing more, nothing less”.
Ford Magazine 2002 – “Occasionally a concept comes along which really changes people’s enjoyment of life. Artist Mike Cahillane does just that with his paintings for the blind and visually impaired.”
Neil Stewart (2002)- ‘Do not touch the artworks’
“The visual arts have, in recent times, accommodated the abject, the obscene, the pornographic, the politically incorrect, the sacrilegious and virtually any other claim to notoriety or assault on our sensibility. In reality, about the only taboo to remain untouched is the time honored protocol that I thou shall not touch the artworks’.
Why? Amidst artists’ talk of engagement and involvement of the viewer- not to mention theorists’ essays on post-modern deconstruction- isn’t it ironic that the sanctity of this protocol is still upheld? Maybe it would prove too much for the formalism of the ‘visual arts’ if, in breaking this final frontier, the visual arts did not remain, well- purely visual. Greenberg would be proud.
But what would life be like if we had never felt the warm breeze of spring, walked hand-in-hand with our first love, felt the forehead of a sick child, run barefoot in the grass or held our first born in our arms? Touch is more than a sensation it dissolves distance, removes distance, removes boundaries and becomes a higher form of connection and communication than sight in lives already dominated by signs, images and stimulation.
Mike Cahillane seems to know this. He not only invites viewers to touch his art, he paints with the intention that they should be touched. He paints with such feeling that the work is actually felt, to the degree that the sensitivity required remain most acute in the blind or partially sighted. For others, there is a strong feeling that Cahillane may also be moving us from simulation to stimulation, physically and mentally; for that alone it is worth staying in touch.