The Nature of Things | Aidan Crotty
Saldanha Gallery | Fort Dunree | 1st – 31st May
Exhibition Opening Friday 8th May at 6.30pm
Aidan Crotty is a painter based in Sligo. He studied at Crawford College of Art, Cork (2000-2004) and participated in the Turps Art School Mentorship Programme, UK (2021-2023). He received the Zurich Portrait Prize at the National Gallery of Ireland in 2020 and the ESB Keating Award and Silver Medal from the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2022. His work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions across Ireland and the UK.
Aidan’s paintings develop through sustained observation made directly on site over extended periods. He explores the relationship between natural and modified terrain, focusing on transitional spaces and encounters within it. These environments form the basis for work that reflects on ecological change, memory, and the delicate balance between human activity and the natural world.
These places often hold traces of earlier uses and histories. While painting, he frequently finds that people stop to talk, sharing their own memories or connections to the location. This dialogue has become an important part of the process, revealing how deeply these spaces are embedded in the lives of those who live nearby.
Derived from these same places are his still life paintings. Occasionally encountering dead wildlife, often on the nearby roads, Aidan then paints them in the controlled environment of his studio. What began as curiosity has developed into a deeper reflection on the ecological pressures within these landscapes. The paintings reveal something of the fragility of these ecosystems and the consequences of human expansion into natural habitats.
Together the landscape and still life paintings can be seen as different aspects of the same environment. The landscapes explore the broader terrain, its structures, atmospheres and histories, while the still life’s focus on the smaller ecological realities contained within it. Both are rooted in direct observation and an ongoing engagement with the nature of things.
