Brian Whelan is an Irish painter, author and playwright.
Early life
Whelan was born in Ealing, West London, UK, of Irish Roman Catholic parents. His childhood was spent both in London and Ireland. After his training at the Royal Academy of Arts, he lived and worked for 30 years in various parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, England. These early years were spent painting, organizing various multi-disciplined art events and making films.
Career
Whelan first came to the attention of the public and media in a fringe event connected to the Aldeburgh Festival in 2000 with an exhibition entitled "The Church Pub" with co artist Andrew Smith. Whelan's half of the exhibition went on to the Hammersmith Irish Art Centre in London. The exhibition then transferred to St Benedict's Abbey in Ealing London. Later years in England were devoted to exhibiting his works throughout England and internationally and writing books. His painting "Holy City with Herald" can be found in the Hostal dos Reis Catolicos in Santiago de Compostella. Since 2013, he and his American wife Wendy Roseberry have lived in the historic village of Waterford, Virginia, USA, where they have created a studio out of an old outbuilding.
Works and exhibitions
in Norfolk England commissioned Whelan to paint 14 panels of the spiritual life and death of International Red Cross nurse Edith Cavell in 2014. The panels on which the scenes of The Passion of Edith Cavell were painted, were first exhibited at Washington National Cathedral in the US to mark 100 years since the beginning of WW1. The paintings later in the following year travelled to Brussels Roman Catholic Cathedral St Michael and St Gudula before continuing its journey to Norfolk for permanent installation of the 14 panels at Norwich Cathedral to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Cavell's execution, in October 2015. Washington National Cathedral invited Whelan to again exhibit in 2016. Nine paintings on the subject of Holy City, a celebration of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The installation placed in the north transept was to mark the 15th year since the 9/11 attacks. Whelan's painting The Martyrdom of St. Edmund permanently hangs in the Lady Chapel of St. Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St. Edmund, England.; His images are used on the Shane MacGowan website; and the cover and contents of The Popes 2009 CD Outlaw Heaven and 2012 CD New Chuch as well as five releases from London Irish punk folker Anto Morra since 2013 until present day. In addition to painting religious subjects, Whelan paints London—the city of his birth—using multiple perspectives and contradictory scales, bending, twisting, and organising the urban chaos into harmony. In summer 2009, Whelan co-curated The Quiet Men – London Irish Painters, the first major international tour of contemporary London Irish art. At the PM Gallery in Ealing, London Whelan first showed his large polyptych Transmetropolitan painting – an immigrants' joyride across the city of London and reference to the song of the same name by Shane MacGowen.In addition to Whelan's work, The Quiet Men tour included paintings by four other London Irish painters: Bernard Canavan, John Duffin, Dermot Holland and the late Daniel Carmody. The book by the same name published by The Irish World Newspaper was launched in 2010 by the Irish Embassy in London.
