Clement McAleer was born in Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland. After Foundation Course in Belfast (1971-72) he studied Fine Art at Canterbury College of Art (1972-75) and the Royal College of Art, London (1975-78). He was awarded the J Andrew Lloyd Award for Landscape Painting (RCA) in 1978 before moving to Liverpool where he was a prizewinner in the John Moores Exhibition (XI). He then settled in Liverpool and was based in a studio in the Bluecoat Arts Centre for twenty five years. He kept in regular contact with his home base in Ireland over the years with residencies and holding exhibitions in various parts of the country. In 2003 he then moved to Belfast where he joined Queen Street Studios (Belfast's oldest established artist's studio group). In 1981 he was awarded a Major Award by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and in the same year completed a Mural commission for The Royal Liverpool Hospital.
Having exhibited extensively in Dublin, Belfast, London and abroad his work has steadily entered public and corporate collections including Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin), Ulster Museum (Belfast), Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool), the Arts Councils of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the European Parliament (Brussels) and Allied Irish Banks.
The focus of McAleer’s paintings, primarily landscape; not the particularities of place, but rather the restless, shifting aspects of nature where cloud or water, land or sea transforms themselves atmospherically, one into another. The Irish coast is a dominate source and the memory of it lurks everywhere in the studio. Travels in Europe and America have also inspired a number of works, particularly the series of railway paintings in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, where a stronger emphasis on structure again entered the work. Sometimes a visible grid is created and then submerged, abstracting each painting, serving also to release it slowly as the sense of ‘being there’ establishes itself.
Born Co. Tyrone
1971-72 Ulster College of Art & Design
1972-75 Canterbury College of Art
1975-78 Royal College of Art
1978 J Andrew Lloyd Award for Landscape Painting (RCA)
1978 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition XI (Prizewinner)
1981 Major Award Arts Council of Northern Ireland
1981 Mural Commission, Royal Liverpool Hospital
Solo exhibitions:
2020 Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
2016 Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
2006 - 2014 gordon gallery, Derry
1985 - 2014 Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
1993 - 2009 Art First, London
1982 - 1983 Paton Gallery, London
1979 - 1985 Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
2012 Hamilton Gallery, Sligo
1999 View Gallery, Liverpool
Monaghan County Museum, Ireland
1995 Aldeburg Festival
Ainscough Gallery, Liverpool
1993 Midlands Contemporary Art, Birmingham
1992 Turnpike Gallery, Leigh
1991 Midlands Contemporary Art, Birmingham
1990 Sligo Arts Festival, Ireland
Narrow Water Gallery, Co. Down
John Clare Series, University of Liverpool
1987 The Winchester Gallery (touring exhibition)
Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport
Worcester City Art Gallery
1983 Milton Keynes Exhibition Gallery
1981 Tom Caldwell Gallery, Dublin
Selected group exhibitions:
2016 Bluecoat Alumni exhibition, Liverpool
2007 - 2016 Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
2004 - 2016 Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast
2004 - 2016 Boyle Arts Ferstival, Boyle
2014 Method & Material, gordon gallery, Derry
2002 H20, Water’s Edge, Art First, London
Summer at Art First, New York
Carlton Festival Exhibition, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland
Boyle Arts Festival
Works on Paper, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast
Living Landscape, Skibereen, Co. Cork and tour to Scotland
2000 The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1999 Art ‘99, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
Starting a Collection, Art First, London
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
1998 Rolling Devolution, Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews, touring Scotland, Ireland and Wales
Art ‘98, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Henley on Thames Festival, with Art First
1998 Rolling Devolution, Crawford Art Centre, St. Andrews, touring Scotland, Ireland and Wales
Art ‘98, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London
Henley on Thames Festival, with Art First
1997 Three Years on!, Art First, London
Art ‘97, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
1996 Art ‘96, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
1995 The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
Landscape at Large, Art First, London
House Painters, Bluecoat Art Centre, Liverpool
Words, Aspex gallery, Portsmouth touring to Fringe Gallery, Glasgow
1994 Art ’94, The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Art First
The Featured Land, Art First, London
1991 The London Contemporary Art Fair, Islington with Midlands Contemporary Art
John Moores 18, Liverpool (Prizewinner)
1991 Parable island (Irish Art), Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool
1990 Art Cologne 1988 (Fenderesky Gallery), Cologne
1988 Ulster Art in the ‘80s, Gallaher Gallery, Dublin
Art Cologne 1988 (Fenderesky Gallery), Cologne
1987 Kunst Aus Liverpool (5 Artists), BBK Gallery, Cologne
1985 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition XIV
14 Artists from Belfast, Mexico City
1983 The Granada Collection, Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester
1982 The Ulysses Project, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Irish Art, Vermont, USA
1981 Hibernian Inscape, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin
Orchard Gallery, Derry
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow
Triptychs, Ian Birksted Gallery, London
1978 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition XI (Prizewinner)
Bibliography:
Jamshid Mirfenderesky, John Clare Series,Naughton Gallery, Belfast, 2014
Liam Kelly, Land Crossings, Irish Arts Review, Autumn 2012
Interview with Brian McAvera, Irish Arts Review, Spring 2006
Brian McAvera, ‘Memory and Invention’, Irish Arts Review, 2006*
Enda Wyley, Opening the Door, Exhibition Catalogue, Art First, 2000
Pam Meecham, Revisiting Landscape, Fenderesky Gallery, 1999
Brian McAvera, Rolling Devolution, Exhibition Catalogue, 1997
Brian McAvera, Land and Sea, Exhibition Catalogue, Art First, 1996
Liam Kelly, Thinking Long, 1996
Frances Ruane, AIB Art, 1995
James Hamilton, Irish Arts Review Year Book, 1993
Martin Anglesea, Portraits and Prospects, Ulster Museum, 1989
Liam Kelly, Exhibition Catalogue, Fenderesky Gallery, Belfast,1985
Collections:
Allied Irish Bank
Amersham International
Arthur Anderson & Co.
Arts Council of Great Britain
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
AXA Insurance
Bank of Ireland
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
BUPA
City Hospital, Belfast
Davies, Wallis, Foyster (Solicitors)
Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland)
European Parliament (Brussels)
Granada Television
IBM United Kingdom
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Littlewoods Organisation
Lombard and Ulster
Malthouse & Co. (Chartered Accountants)
Office of Public Works
Royal College of Art
The Royal Liverpool Hospital
The Royal Victoria Hospital
Ulster Museum
Ulster Television
Unilever Ltd.
University of Liverpool
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
Williamson Art Gallery, Birkenhead