Michael Cullen

Michael Cullen was born in 1946 and grew up in Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow. He became a painter before studying at the Central School of Art and Design, London and at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, winning Arts Council bursaries in 1977, '82, and '84. Other awards include the National Portrait Award in 1989 and the Independent Artists Major Painting Award in 1984. He took part in a number of group exhibitions in New York, Amsterdam and Berlin, as well as in Ireland including Making Sense - Ten Artists, Arts Council Touring Exhibition 1982/83, and Divisions, Crossroads and Turns of Mind - Some New Irish Art International Touring Exhibition 1985. He has aslo had a number of solo exhibitions in Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Longford. Labelled Neo-Expressionist, his work is marked by a clear commitment to the medium of oil paint which he applies in rich colourful furrows and his work of the late 1970s and early 80s has been likened to that of Francis Bacon. Michael Cullen has lived in Morocco, Germany, the South of France and Ireland.

Reference: Images and Insights Exh. Cat. (Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin 1993), 168.