Stephen Dunne’s practice operates across the registers of painting, drawing, moving image and the investigation of speculative and theoretical fictions. The process of making, where each thing leads to the next through an experimental and intuitive approach is at the core of this work. The work is realised as painting installations, books, printed matter, works on paper, animations, and as collective artworks (made collaboratively with others). Critical to this processes is an interest in drawing on aspects of the subconscious, to enable freer, less conscious or less self-reflexive aspects to come through in the final work.

Is there an artist whose work particularly inspires you?

In the last few years I’ve been involved in collaborative projects with Alexander Tucker & Daniel O’ Sullivan of Grumbling Fur, Mark Titchner and John Strutton, they’re an inspiring bunch. I’m heavily influenced by writers, Thomas Pynchon, Joyce, Roberto Bolano almost everything published by Fitzcarraldo. A few years ago my brother and I travelled around Italy on the Piero Della Francesca trail, something I never imagined would be possible. If I have a method it’s to use influence and inspiration as raw material to be fed through the machinery of my subconscious. The work is filled to bursting with other voices, techniques and processes. Each piece is potentially a pandora’s box of reference, allusion and cultural dredging. Films, TV, novels and news are the latent currency of the work.

A graduate of the Royal College of Art in London, Stephen has exhibited internationally on a regular basis. Selected recent exhibitions include: “Premise”, Queen Alexandra’s House, Kensington Gore, London,24, “A Paradise of Paradox and Pardon”,Cavan Townhall, 23“, “Call Me”, Galerie PCP Paris 22 “Paipear” Hangtough Contemporary Dublin 22,  Whistle and I’ll Come”, Superweakness Den Haag 22, “Worms In Your Head, A Journey,” Courthouse Gallery, Ennistymon Co. Clare, 19; “Shackled To Belligerent Ghosts”, Triskel Arts Center, Cork, 19; Uchronia, Not As It Was, But As It Might Have Been, Ashford Gallery, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 19; Wilder Beings Command,Irish Museum of Modern Art, 17; As Above, So Below: Portals, Visions, Spirits &Mystics, Irish Museum of Modern Art, 17.