Donal Moloney Irish, b. 1984
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Overview
Enigmatic scenarios are constructed from layers of personal and historical references and allusions. What emerges is dreamlike and kaleidoscopic. Volcanoes, figures, castles, churches, treetops and boats interweave and dissolve into one another.DONAL IS AN MFA GRADUATE OF THE SLADE SCHOOL OF FINE ARTMoloney's paintings often feature figures lost in thought, adrift in their surroundings. His subjects, absorbed in reverie, inhabit spaces where elements of everyday life intertwine with surreal, fragmented imagery. Using techniques such as fade-outs, glimpses, and layered vignettes, he constructs visual narratives that feel both intimate and mysterious. His pictures invite viewers into a world where perception is fluid, and the boundaries between fiction and reality break down. His art is a quiet yet powerful exploration of how we experience time, memory, and the act of looking.In 2016, Donal was selected for ‘The John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition’ at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, where he won the John Moores Visitor’s Choice Award. He is represented in numerous public and private collections.Price range for work £2,000 - £3,000+Please email the gallery for information about paintings currently for sale -
Works
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Donal in Conversation
PATRICK DAVIES TALKS WITH THE ARTISTWHEN DID YOU REALISE YOU WANTED TO BECOME AN ARTIST, AND WHY DID YOU CHOOSE PAINTING? DO YOU COME FROM A CREATIVE BACKGROUND?I remember being about 16 in secondary school and planning to study architecture. I always loved drawing. Our art teacher brought us on a tour of the art school here in Cork, Ireland. Looking back, I don't know if it was the smell of turpentine or the student's overalls covered in paint, but I was hooked. There seemed to be an atmosphere of incredible freedom and possibility in the studios. I was very lucky, once I eventually got into art school, to study fine art; a course where you could study any combination of media you wanted. No matter what I experimented with, I always came back to painting. Something about its world-building possibilities and the links to my foundations in drawing gave me a feeling of endless possibilities. There was still so much I didn't know and was obsessed with figuring out that fuelled me then as it does now: the alchemy of paint, surfaces, materiality, etc. Whilst I was always encouraged to pursue art, none of my family were 'creatives' in any traditional sense. However, I am adopted, and when I traced my birth family, there was an interest in art and even relations working in the artworld on my birth mother's side, which was unexpected as well as really intriguing.
WHERE AND WHEN DID YOU STUDY AT ART SCHOOL? WHAT WAS THE EXPERIENCE LIKE, AND WHAT DID YOU LEARN?I did my BA in Fine Art at MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in Cork, Ireland (2003-07) and an MFA in Painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London (2008-10). Both art schools had unique studio cultures fostered by the staff, where one felt respected for pushing as many boundaries as possible. There also seemed to be a thread linking back to the history of painting in both institutions. The Crawford was very much where I was 'forged' creatively, and a huge emphasis was put on materiality, instinct and the 'look' of the work. This was a good primer for studying soon after at the Slade, where there was a similar respect for materials and processes, but it was here when I really began to investigate the ideas behind my practice. On the same afternoon, one could attend a demo on gilding gold leaf onto gesso, followed by a reading group about authorial agency and spectatorship. Hugely important to the ethos of both art schools I studied at was embracing risk-taking as a means of developing one's painting practice. We were encouraged to 'kill your darlings' and learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable when it came to uncertainty, and I believe this has stood to me in the long run. Keeping both materials and ideas in balance has been integral to my painting practice, eventually leading me to do a PhD at University of the Arts London (2012-15).YOUR WORK HAS A FEELING OF WHIMSY, STORYTELLING, AND THEATRE. DO YOU REFERENCE REAL LIFE, OR IS EVERYTHING IMAGINARY?I have a deep interest in storytelling through painting, but not in a prescriptive or linear way. I think what I am seeking is a painting where there seems to be a hint of an earlier event in the painting's narrative and a nod to the future of what might happen if the 'scene' were to play out over time. I find it so curious how painting is essentially static but can have a lingering element of time contained within its construction that can crisscross with the time that appears to emanate from it. It's interesting that you mentioned theatre, as the figures and objects I depict are often tied together through some form of architectural setting. I am a big collector of images, often harvested from books, magazines, and online, as well as my own photos. My paintings usually start with a single image that I get down in some form onto the canvas to create a problem to solve. A domino effect usually follows; one image joining another, sometimes dissolving each other, sometimes fusing with looser brush strokes. It can take months for a painting to arrive at a state where I think it is close to being finished. The path there does often start with real life, but I need it to become something more imaginary and dream-like. I need to find a subject through the process quite often. My initial starting points need to gestate over a long time through the materiality of paint. The element of the dream-like becomes, I think, like a theatre in your head and can often be a subtle resistance or an antidote to the norm and replete with alternatives. I see that as genuinely positive and why creativity and reimagining other realities are so core to our society if I could make so bold a claim!THE MATERIALS YOU USE TO CONSTRUCT YOUR PAINTINGS GIVE A DISTINCT SENSE OF LAYERING AND CHANCE. WHAT DO YOU USE, AND HOW IMPORTANT ARE THEY TO THE CREATIVE PROCESS?The materials I use are really important to my creative process. I use acrylics, watercolours and oil paint, often on the same painting. Each has its own unique history and reacts so differently to light. I'm obsessed with layering and the magical atmospheres you can conjure with a simple glaze or etching back into a section of a painting ten layers deep to reveal something once lost. Chance is definitely one of the main 'engines' of my painting practice. I balance this with a very deliberate focus in areas of the paintings that I consider as 'jewel-like' anchors to the more gestural elements of the work. Chance tempers the deliberate and vice versa, creating a form of visual flux on the painting's surface. I think this creates really unpredictable associations between forms, images, colours, etc. I want the paintings themselves to be contemplative or meditative spaces where one's mind can wander…a form of painterly repose before the real world snaps back into focus for us all! It's like a form of purposeful dreaming where thoughts can drift into and out of the painting continually.WHAT INFLUENCES PLAY INTO YOUR PAINTING?I'm not directly influenced by other art forms, such as music or literature, but I do think they feed into the studio very subtly. Both can conjure realities, experiences and even feelings of magic outside our everyday experiences. I wouldn't make a painting about a character in a book or the sentiment of a song, but I hold what I read or listen to as markers or standards to reach. As a bit of a 'romantic' painter, I want the viewer to feel as I do when I encounter art that moves me. That's what I'm chasing when I am painting; something to do with empathy for the viewer and using this ancient way of communicating with someone; painting.WHICH OTHER ARTISTS DO YOU ADMIRE AND WHY? DO ANY DIRECTLY INFLUENCE YOUR WORK?I am a huge fan of painting's rich history; Duccio's use of colour, Da Vinci's painting of eyes and hands, Rachel Ruysch's forest floor still lives…I could go on and on! Contemporary painters I love would be Ellen Altfest's intense focus on a subject, Danica Lundy's playfulness and Mark Bradford's fusing of chance and intention. I would say these artists and many others 'haunt' my practice very subtly rather than become direct influences on my work. I admire them all immensely. Sometimes, if I am stuck resolving a painting, I wonder what they would say, and that gets me to dig deeper and push more and more until I arrive at something that surprises me.IS IT IMPORTANT HOW THE VIEWER REACTS TO YOUR WORK?I think so. I mean, it's a bit like what I just said previously; I think the viewer is a bit like my broad tapestry of influences. The thought of them looking and interpreting my work in a kaleidoscope of ways comes into and out of the studio. Part of me creates the work for myself first, almost as the first viewer of the work. I've seen it all the way through, from the initial beginnings, the 'messy middle', all the way to the painting's completion. If I am still engaged and perplexed by the painting once it's finished, I often hope others will. I want people to feel free to engage with the mystery and puzzling ambiguity of the works in whatever way they choose. I have the words 'adventure, positivity and celebration' stuck onto my studio wall as a sort of compass to keep me on track. I guess that's a lot to try and communicate to the viewer, but one of the greatest feelings I get as an artist is when my suspicions about the work's intentions align with another person's experiences of it.WHAT OTHER INTERESTS DO YOU HAVE?
rt is really my biggest preoccupation. Outside of spending quality time with my lovely family, I love music, reading and exercise, like most people. If I can fill my week with recent releases from John Blek, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and playing in the 5-a-side 'creatives' soccer team I'm part of, then I am very content!
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