Musical Object Painting

Joseph Heffernan (b.1987) is an Irish artist based in Cork, Ireland. His work deals with the ephemeral nature of memory, identity and fantasy and how these things are intertwined to form augmented fictions. It is influenced by various different visual traditions such as the Commedia dell'Arte, Rococo Art, Botanical photography and early cinema, in particular the imagery of Golden Age Hollywood. The narratives surrounding the figures and objects which he depicts are left deliberately vague and as a result the images have a plurality of interpretations where the viewer is an active producer of these interpretations. The work can perhaps best be understood as a mapping of interior mental spaces as well as an attempt to reconcile the exterior world with those spaces. He received his BA (Hons) in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design in 2009 and later went on to study Painting as a Masters student at NCAD Dublin (2016). He has exhibited widely in Ireland. Solo shows include A Thousand Years, Studio 12 Gallery, Cork (2023), The Golden Age, Blue House Gallery, West Cork (2022) and There were Strange Gatherings, RHA, Dublin (2020). 2-Person shows include Borderland/Memento, Garter Lane Arts Centre, Waterford (2018). Recent selected group shows include Displacement and Belonging - Home, RUA RED, Dublin (2023), Closer, Lavit Gallery, Cork (2022), RHA Annual Open, RHA, Dublin (2023, 2020, 2019, 2018) and Cahoots, A4 Sounds, Dublin (2019). He is currently a studio member of Backwater Artists Group, Cork and an associate member of Sample Studios, Cork. Awards include the 2020 Contemporary Irish Arts Society Award for a work of Distinction, the Arts Council Agility Award 2021 and the Cork City Council Individual Artists Bursary 2023.