The F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council are delighted to present Catherine McWilliams: Selected Work 1961 – 2021. For over six decades, McWilliams has produced original and compelling images of life in Northern Ireland. From a self-portrait painted when she was 21 to recent compositions exploring the threat of climate change, her work ranges from the domestic to the surreal and prioritises the experiences of women and children. McWilliams lives in North Belfast, in the shadow of Cavehill, and taught in a local secondary school during the worst years of the conflict. Throughout those decades, her work documented everyday life – from marriage and motherhood to teaching and teenage rebellion – at a time when the media was saturated with images of violence and destruction. Within this context, McWilliams’ paintings of home and the suburban landscape constitute a radical alternative to the dominant view of Northern Ireland during the period.

Initiated by Dr Louise Wallace, Lecturer in Painting at Belfast School of Art, who has co-curated the exhibition with Dr Riann Coulter of the F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Catherine McWilliams: Selected Work 1961 – 2021 provides a unique opportunity to appreciate the quality and range of McWilliams’ practice and confirms her place in the canon of Irish art.