DYLAN MOLLOY
Lets cut straight to the chase.
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Art, to be art must be created for its own sake, all else is craft. The market for contemporary art here is so small that most commercial galleries, to stay afloat, encourage and patronise artists to produce work that is specifically geared towards those people who have the expendable income but not the originality to choose real art (original work).
Tired & worn cliché it may be but a majority of local buyers select work which goes with their drapes/three piece suite etc, that does not make too much of a statement! In other words its mainly decorativelike a mantelpiece ornament, though rather more expensive; roughly the same 30 years ago as it is now. Perhaps this is a good thing, because it means that artists of quality, insight and imagination must, at the very least travel a lot, or indeed immigrate to a place where they are appreciated for themselves, for their originality, foresight and indeed audacity. It is, and has been the same for all mediums of art: painting, sculpture, poetry, music and theatre.
Dylan and I share something in common; we've little or no regard for the innate conservatism of UK & Irish tastes or lack of. We share a world view, not just a local one. Now please understand there are many wonderful artists and art appreciators from and living in the north of Ireland, but the number is too few to give, say a hundred artists a constant living wage!
So, if you're looking for a piece of art that compliments the curtains that blends with the present colour scheme of your dining or living room, well dont go near Dylan Molloys work! Dylans pictures are unashamedly audacious, naked, lustful and too large not to notice immediately! Thats why hell always have my vote. It is in the abject appreciation and indulgence where this art is made. Both indulgence and intelligence are two attributes that in the UK and Ireland are seen as negative characteristics!
Britain is the only country where being too clever by half is an insult!
At times childish, naïve, lustful, juvenile and brash..Dylan Molloys pictures are all these and more and all the better for it! I know a natural when I see one, and Mr Molloy is simply that. His pictures by their very existence blow away all the safety nets that gently cradle much of what goes under the name of art in so very many Ulster galleries. I yawn at the thought!
It is a fresh new time for Ulster, and a fresh new approach to art is long overdue, Dylan could be the Pirate captain, or first mate of that motley crew of artistic reprobates!
Royce Harper
Art commentator & critic
Love and Death Inc, Belfast is to host the first major exhibition of the Irish artist Dylan Molloy. Molloy is at the forefront of provocative Charcoal/Ink pieces.Around twenty pieces will be on show on the top floor of Belfast’s ‘Love and Death Inc’, the Betty Conway collection casts a voy, whilst other pieces show Dylan’s enthusiasm for traditional tattoo and strands of new wave designs.Molloy’s latest collection shows his transition from black and white into work with colour. With more time on his hands to focus on the Betty Conway collection Dylan has experimented with oils, and adding splashes of colour which boosts different dimensions into his work.
Dylan spent much of his formative years in Tyrone and Belfast but spent about ten years traveling. Whilst making trips around the globe he left a trail of portraits. “It has taken that time of Living Life on the edge, to realise that Art is my real vocation and I intend to pursue it to the end of my days!”I love to work with Charcoal and Pencil. I love the simplicity of charcoal, the big bold lines you can create that really jump out at the viewer.I love doing Portraits, seeing the lines in a face that has been really lived in.
When doing a portrait or life drawing one must get to know ones object in a subjective way. They cease to be what you know but become the unknown, an object of sorts consisting of merely lines of light and darkness.Since being back permanently in Belfast many of his works have been for private commissions, weddings, birthdays, and a lot of his work can now be seen as murals.
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Press Release, 2012