Adrian Margey

Adrian Margey is a young artist who comes from Kilrea in County Derry. This is also the home village of the former Northern Ireland soccer international and now Sunderland manager, Martin O’Neill, as well as the well-known journalist and writer Paddy Agnew, the Irish Times Rome correspondent (thanks to Seamus Martin for pointing this out!).

I first met Adrian when he was a student of Communications, Advertising and Marketing at the University of Ulster, where my daughter was also studying. He graduated with a BSc Honours in 2007 (see Class Notes). In 2005 he was awarded a scholarship under the Washington Ireland programme and spent two months as an intern in the USA.

Queen’s University by Night © Adrian Margey €1200

He juggled his studies with a burgeoning career as a visual artist. Since graduating, he has exhibited widely. His pictures include contemporary depictions of familiar Ulster landmarks and Irish traditional musicians and dancers. He received funding in 2010 from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to run a series of high profile solo exhibitions, which have been well received.

Iconic Dunluce © Adrian Margey €2550

The Guild Hall, Derry City © Adrian Margey €645 SOLD

In 2011 he developed two new bodies of work which went on show at the Radisson Hotel, Limavady at the end of August and at the Culloden Hotel, Cultra. For St Patrick’s weekend 2013, he is holding his first exhibition in the Republic of Ireland, at the Radisson Blu Hotel at St Helen’s on the Stillorgan Road in South Dublin, close to where I am wrote this article. Admission is free and around seventy works are on sale, some of which were purchased on the opening evening.

Sorrento Terrace (Dalkey) © Adrian Margey €695 SOLD

I notice from Adrian’s website that he has painted some Dublin scenes specially for the exhibition, some of them featuring the Ha’penny Bridge across the River Liffey, Trinity College Dublin and others of the Bray area in County Wicklow, including Bray Head and the Sugar Loaf mountain.

Carrickfergus Castle © Adrian Margey €495

Scrabo Tower © Adrian Margey €475 SOLD

It all adds up to a very colourful exhibition, which remains open until Monday afternoon (18th). One of the largest pictures (and therefore more expensive) is entitled “Time Stands Still at Trinity College”. It might appeal to a TCD graduate or someone connected with the College, or perhaps a collector who likes pictures of famous buildings in Dublin. The price tag is €895. When Adrian exhibited his work last year at my local parish hall, St Brigid’s in South Belfast, I did not get an opportunity to visit the display. So I am pleased to have been able to catch up with him on my original “home” ground at the bottom of Foster Avenue in Mount Merrion parish.

Trinity College © Adrian Margey €895

Causeway © Adrian Margey €795