Born in Trim, Co. Meath in 1950, Charles Tyrrell studied at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin. In 1982 he was elected a member of Aosdána and that same year he represented Ireland at the Paris Biennale. His work has featured in many major exhibitions in Ireland and abroad, solo exhibitions include Project Arts Centre (1974, 1975); West Cork Arts Centre (1990); Triskel Arts Centre, Cork (1992); Austin/Desmond Fine Art, London (1994, 1998); RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin (2000); Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle (2002); Fenton Gallery, Cork (2005) and has had numerous exhibitions at the Taylor Galleries, Dublin from the 1980s.
His work is represented in all major Irish collections. Charles Tyrrell now lives and works on the Beara Peninsula, Co Cork.
“There is a delicious minimalism to the art of Charles Tyrrell, and as with all the best minimalist works, there is so much more to be found, dancing across the surfaces of his paintings and prints. Grids and lines catch the eye, and marvellously move it, until you start to believe in the idea of three dimensions, held within the spaces of his frames.
He is so expressive in texture too, with a deft confidence no doubt born of being, as Royal Hibernian Academy Director Patrick Murphy has said, “probably the best painter of his generation in Ireland.” In print this translates to an ability to make you feel as if steel is meeting stone, or wood brushing up against sea, sky and grasses. And though all this, he brings you to the realisation that there can be a sense of peace occasional to the chaos of our brilliant and beautiful world.”
