Mayo native to showcase iconic speeches at major art fair

A movie art director from Mayo is to unveil a striking new series of paintings in which national flags are created from some of the most iconic speeches in history.

Achill native Gary McGinty, who was nominated last year for a USA Art Directors Guild Award for his work on the Netflix hit series Wednesday, has painted the flags of Ireland, the UK, US, Canada, South Africa and India, using words drawn from groundbreaking addresses.

His ‘Spoken State’ pieces include the 1916 Proclamation, alongside speeches by John F Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have a Dream’.

The artwork will be unveiled at Art Evolve, a major contemporary fair which returns to Dublin’s RDS from this Friday to Sunday (March 27-29).

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Members of the Contemporary Art Gallery Association (CAGA) will join forces with other established galleries and individual artists to showcase the best of the Irish art scene.

“Over time, the meaning of historic speeches evolves,” said McGinty, 57, a native of Saula on Achill Island.

“Pádraig Pearse’s 1916 Proclamation, once a revolutionary declaration, is now seen as a founding text of modern Ireland. 

“Gandhi’s ‘Do or Die’ began as a call for Indian independence but today symbolises non-violent resistance, while Volodymyr Zelensky’s ‘We are Here’ became an instant emblem of defiance.

“In times of crisis we can return to these words to see what they can still teach us.”

McGinty trained as an architect and has divided his career between film art direction and painting. 

He began working in film in 1995, drawing the set of the GPO for the blockbuster drama Michael Collins, starring Liam Neeson and Julia Roberts.

He later worked as art director on Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Disney’s Disenchanted and his latest film project, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, starring Jack Reynor, is due for release next month.

But away from film sets, McGinty, now based in Rathmines, Dublin, devotes his time to paintings in his home studio.

“With this collection, I want people to reconnect with flags and start a new conversation about them,” he said.

“I’d love to see the paintings spark a broader discussion about speeches like the 1916 Proclamation — texts we see so often that we sometimes stop really reading them.”

He said the inspiration for his artistic life began on Achill Island.

“My life changed when I was ten years old and a neighbour arrived with a set of watercolour paints and said, ‘I think you need these more than I do.’ I’ve been painting ever since.”

Art Evolve, Ireland’s largest contemporary art fair, runs at the RDS from Friday to Sunday. Full details and booking at www.artevolve.ie.