Conor McGrady - Artwork

The core of my practice focuses primarily on painting and drawing. The work as a whole is based on situations of civil unrest and military control, largely drawing on, but not confined to, my experience growing up in the north of Ireland. The buildings and housing areas in the drawings are often subject to physical control by the military and in some cases were designed and planned with the help of military technicians to ensure containment of an insurgent population. The recent works are executed in black and white, with the surrounding white space referring to aspects of purity, cleanliness or control.

The paintings that I produce directly refer to the history of portrait painting, in particular the works of Velasquez and Goya, and are an attempt to examine the pathology of power. The aim of all the work is to raise questions relating to the control of space and to explore the various manifestations of social order.