Library to host exhibition of Cork's most beloved places and faces

A free exhibition of some of Cork’s most beloved places and faces is to run for the whole month of May in Frank O'Connor Library, Mayfield.

The major exhibition of new and recent work by celebrated Cork artist Kieran O'Callaghan will be formally launched at 11am on Thursday, May 7.

Cork Faces and Places brings together a compelling body of work centred on notable Cork personalities, both contemporary and historic.

Among the portraits is a likenesses of Frank O'Connor, whom the library is named after, while the work also depicts historical scenes such as a charcoal sketch of the aftermath of the burning of Cork 100 years ago.

Executive librarian Richard Forrest said: “Kieran’s work brings together pencil and charcoal portraits of Cork personalities — among them Tomás MacCurtain, Rory Gallagher, Michael Collins — alongside a striking charcoal of Cork City Hall in ruins following its burning in 1920, and a vivid series of inter-county GAA scenes.” 

Mr O'Callaghan was born and raised in Cork city in the 1960s, where his father, a painter, kindled a lifelong passion for art.

He studied at Coláiste Chríost Rí and attended evening sculpture classes at Cork School of Art, before relocating with his family in the late 1990s to an old schoolhouse in Béal na Bláth where the surrounding landscape became an enduring source of inspiration.

Now retired, he works daily in his studio, producing work in oils, watercolour, charcoal, and pencil that spans landscapes, wildlife, portraiture, and figurative studies.

His work is held in private collections worldwide and has been acquired by or gifted to notable figures including Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Steve Collins, Liam Neeson, Dermot Desmond, and Bernie McGuinness.