bio/cv

Bernard Irwin, British, born in Malaya in 1953, grew up in England and Germany. In 1981 he returned to England following studies in the Netherlands. He worked in Bristol, painting and making sculpture and ceramics until moving to Cornwall in 1996 where he now paints.

Selected solo exhibitions

2020 'Let's Build a Boat and Sail Away', Upper Gallery, Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, Cornwall.
2019 'If I were A Blackbird I'd Whistle and Sing', Heseltine Gallery, Truro.
2010 The Courtyard Centre for the arts, Hereford. 
2005 New Ashgate Gallery, Farnham.
2004 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.
2002 Dundee Contemporary Art.
2001 City of Aberdeen Art Gallery.
2001 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.
1996 Contemporary Ceramics, London.
1994 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh.
1991 Moving Pictures, a South West Art Association touring exhibition.
1983 Bath University.
1982 LYC Gallery, Cumbria.

 

Selected exhibitions

2023 Linden Hall studio, Deal, Kent.  Winter Group Show.
2021 Circle Contemporary, Cornwall.  'Pleasure-Go-Round' - Bernard Irwin & Simon Gaiger.

The Rosewood Festival and the Yew Tree Gallery, Cornwall.  'The Trees are Singing/Treelines - a collaboration with composer Fintan O'Hare.

2018 Heseltine Gallery, Truro, Cornwall.  'Kober'.
2017 Tremenheere Sculpture Garden, Cornwall. 'Borders'. 
2016 Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall.  'Press Gang'.
2015 The Penwith Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall.  'NSA 293'. 
  Salt House Gallery, St.Ives, Cornwall.
2014 Heseltine Gallery, Truro, Cornwall. 'A Moment of Flux'.
2013 Bucca Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall. 'Drawing & Works on Paper.' 
  Bucca Gallery, Newlyn, Cornwall. 'Palladium'.
  Millennium Gallery, Cornwall. 'Drawing the Line'.
2012 The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall. 'Five by Five'. 
2011 The Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall. 'PRINT!'.
  Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall. 'Summer Waves'. 
  Mariners Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall. 'Uncharted Landscapes'.
2009 Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall. 'Double Vision - 9 collaborative projects' - Armoured PiƱata a collaboration with Howard Silverman.
  'A Cornish Perspective' - RWA, Bristol.  Co-curated with Denny Long and Jesse Leroy Smith.
2008 Hilton Young Gallery, Penzance, Cornwall. 'Drawing the Line'.
2007 Newly Art Gallery, Cornwall. 'Lineage'.
2005 Belgrave Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall. 
  The Craft Centre and Design Gallery, City Art Gallery, Leeds.
  Thompsons - The City Gallery, London.
  Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. 'Bernard Irwin, Rachel Kantaris and Louise McClary'.
  Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. 'Critics Choice' - selected by John Russel Taylor, art critic for The Times.
2003 Newlyn Art Gallery, Cornwall. 'Critics Choice' - selected by Joan Bakewell, broadcaster and writer.

 

 

Curatorial

2011 'PRINT!' - with Jesse Leroy Smith for the Exchange, Penzance, Cornwall. A major exhibition surveying printmaking in Cornwall from 1900 to the present.
2009 ' A Cornish Perspective' - RWA, Bristol.  Co-curated with Denny Long and Jesse Leroy Smith
2007 'Lineage' - with Marion Taylor for the Newlyn art Gallery. Cornwall.

 

Projects, commissions & residencies

2017 'Picturing the Mines - works from the studio' Paintings from the studios of Bernard Irwin and Jesse Leroy Smith inspired and influenced by a year looking and moving through the mining landscapes of Devon and Cornwall.
2016 'Picturing the Mines' - a suite of ten copper plate etchings. Commissioned by the Cornish & West Devon Mining World Heritage Site. With Jesse Leroy Smith.
2014 'Travelogue Kernow' Printmaking & events in five towns across Cornwall. With Jesse Leroy Smith.
2004 Thomas town Pottery Skills Seminar, Kilkenny, Ireland. Demonstrator and exhibitor.
1997 Weston College Mosaic. Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. An 80sq.m ceramic installation. 

 

Awards/grants

2017 Arts Council England           FEAST
2014 FEAST
1995 South West Arts Training Bursary
1992 Crafts Council Award
1989 South West Arts Award

 

Collections

University of Warwick
City of Aberdeen
Falmouth Art Gallery
Private collections