Lee Welch

Lives and works in Dublin, Ireland

Artist statement

Lee Welch was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1975 and currently lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. Welch creates gestural, atmospheric paintings that attest to the psychical and emotional depths of his chosen subjects and map out delicate negotiations between beauty, desire, and the painted image. Depicting figures from his own milieu, as well as from history, literature, music, and tennis, Welch finds feeling in that which he depicts, always rendered with the intensity of his particular humanism; a close looking akin to love. In each subject’s specificity, the artist reveals the universal feelings that connect us to each other, and that stretch from our present moment back through time. Welch received his BFA from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 2009 and his MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam in 2011. Welch has held prestigious residencies at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Kunstwerk Kolderveen, The Netherlands and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, supported by the Arts Council. His work has been featured in numerous significant exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including Slane Castle, Ireland curated by Jenn Ellis and Matilda Liu; The Complex, Dublin curated by Mark O’Gorman; The National Gallery, Dublin curated by Dorothy Cross, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, and Anne Stewart; The Glucksman Gallery, Cork; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University curated by Chris Clarke, Caitlín Doherty...

Artwork