John Behan
John Behan is a sculptor based in Co. Galway.
Work by John Behan is available by request & commission. Please keep in contact to find out when work will be exhibited next.
Biography
Born in Dublin in 1938, he studied at the National Academy of Art & Design, Dublin; Ealing Art College, London; and the Royal Academy School, Oslo.
He helped establish the Project Arts Centre in 1967 and the Dublin Art Foundry in 1970.
Beginning in the 1960s he exhibited in major group shows such as the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, the Royal Hibernian Academy and the Oireachtas; he has had frequent solo shows in Belfast, Cork, Derry, Galway, Dublin and New York, all combining sculpture and drawing.
The Taylor Galleries in Dublin held a solo show of his new sculpture in 2002.
The Office of Public Works commissioned Arrival, a bronze sculpture of a famine ship, seven metres long and eight metres high, with 150 bronze figures on deck and disembarking, for presentation to the United Nations by the Government of Ireland in 2000. The piece was based on his Famine Ship, the national famine memorial at the base of Croagh Patrick in Murrisk, Co. Mayo, which was unveiled by President Mary Robinson in 1996.
Other major commissions include Millennium Child for Barnados, which was cast in a limited edition of 100; Wings of the World in Shenzhen, China (1992); Megalithic Memories, Allied Irish Banks headquarters, Dublin (1982); Cúchulainn Relief Panels, Gresham Hotel (now in Dublin Institute of Technology Kevin Street), 1970.
He was a member of the Arts Council from 1973 to 1978.
Source: Aosdana.
All images © John Behan and McBride Gallery