FAMILY MATTERS
Thursday 20th. August – Sunday 6th. September 2026
Cnoc Buí
Union Hall, West Cork, P81 X 274
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.
Red Hat ( 2005 )
Ceramic
57.5 x 20 x 24cm ( H x W x D )
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Photography by Johanna Connor © 2025
(The Dad) Pat Connor’s ceramic sculpture reveals a deftness of hand with the clay 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 as he seeks to address, in a uniquely subjective way, the complexity we find ourselves in, through the occasion of being human. Paintings and Drawings by Pat will also feature offering insights to the imagined world of origins for is sculpture.
Works on Paper
Ceramics
Works on board
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.
Image by Alan Benton © 2004
Born in Dublin, Pat studied at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) before moving to West Cork in 1971. He represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale in 1980. A seminal figure in Irish ceramic sculpture, his work is held in major public collections, including the National Museum of Ireland and the Arts Council of Ireland.
Phocine ( 2019 )
Kilkenny Limestone, Bronze pins and steel
30 x 30 x 27cm
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Photography by Michael Quane © 2025
Photograph by Johanna Connor © 2021
( Her Husband) Michael Quane draws upon the surface of the limestone and Marble with a tungsten-carbide-tipped chisel until eventually the loose flabby boulder is drawn, ever tighter, by each pass of the chisel, into a deliberate form. His human and animal subjects enquire subtly of attachment and belonging to each other, to idea and to the world around us.
Michael Quane RHA 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.
Image by Johanna Connor © 2021
A member of Aosdána and the Royal Hibernian Academy ( RHA ), Quane is one of reland's most prominent sculptors. He has exhibited internationally and is renowned for his direct carving in limestone and marble, with major public commissions sited across Ireland, such as "Horses and Riders" at the Mallow roundabout.
Blue in Bweeng ( 2026 )
Clutch Pencil with water colour on HP Waterford paper 300gms
Framed 65 x 80 cm using AR70 glass
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Photograph by Ros Kavanagh © 2024
(His Daughter) Johanna Connor looks at the landscape. In her looking, she finds herself lost in a thicket of significant meaning, where the traces remain from the activity of people in their endeavours, where the friction of their lives upon its surface leave their marks on the landscape and the landscape of things: where the furrows drawn deep remain in the tilt of the soil, where the hollow in a horizon holds a story, where the scale expressed in the husbandry of the land reveals another scale of means, where the proportions chosen express an aesthetic which is personal, communal, economic or indeed global, where the strata reveals the architecture of social and cultural evolution, where we’re mistaken by our assumptions and caught in the wire of nostalgia, where the landscape simply has the indelible, although at times, the faintest, footprint of evidence impressed upon its surface.
GINGERMAN-RELISH
30cm glass Dome ( BELL JAR 3_2012 )
Gingerbread-man cutter – 2006
Adele’s: Main St. Schull. P81 DX56, Ireland.
51° 31’ 36.912”N 9° 32’ 50.424”W
Gentlemans relish container - 1997
Motley: 67 Drury lane, London, WC2B 5SP, UK.
51° 30’ 48.204”N 0° 7’ 7.356”W
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.
Image by Ros Kavanagh © 2024
Originally a set and costume designer for leading institutions like The Abbey Theatre, Johanna returned to fine art following a life-altering illness. She holds a MA in Art and Process from the Crawford. In 2025 she was commission by the Glucksman to make work for the recent exhibition Domain of the Dinosaurs. Her work is held in prominent Private Public, County Council and National collections.