Bernadette Kiely lives beside the river Nore in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny and this has become the driving force in her work. Particularly drawn to and inspired by flooding, her work is responsive to environmental shifts, the effects of weather on land, rivers and on human lives. She depicts imagery that often veils what we are looking at and makes us think again, blankets of mist, fog, fire, smoke and floodwater. Her work draws attention to a sense of unease and an awareness of atmospheric conditions – and prompts us towards a fundamental reassessment of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us.

In this new exhibition Survival of the fittest [the answer is] Blowing in the wind Bernadette brings together paintings of flooding locally and globally with paintings and drawings of the animal and natural plant life she observes on a daily basis in her riverine locality. In our present time of man made climate change and environmental distress she embraces the lines ‘flowers are known to heal a common man’s despair’, paying homage to the tenacity, resilience and survival of dandelions, poppies and to cows, focusing on their collective nature and the symbiosis inherent in their survival for over 5,000 years.

Recent exhibitions include: ‘A NEW LANDSCAPE – Cork or Venice, Who cares, who can tell’, Lavit Gallery Cork. (March/April 2023), RHA  Annual, 200th Anniversary Exhibition 2023, RHA Galleries, Dublin (May/July 2023), Zurich Portrait Awards, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin and the Regional Cultural Centre, Letterkenny (2022/3), Contemporary British Painting Prize, Huddersfield Art Gallery, UK and Thames Side Gallery and Studios, London, UK, (2022), ‘Imagine Life Without Art’, Custom House Gallery and Studios, Westport, Mayo (2022). ‘One touch of nature [makes the whole world kin]’, Taylor Galleries, Dublin. (2020).

Bernadette Kiely’s work is held in public and private collections in Ireland, EU and USA and has recently been purchased by the Crawford Gallery of Art, Cork for the National Collection of Ireland. She lives and works in Thomastown, County Kilkenny and is a member of Aosdána.

www.bernadettekiely.ie.