Justin Fitzpatrick
Kerlin Gallery is excited to present A Musical Instrument, the first solo exhibition in Ireland by Justin Fitzpatrick.
Opening Reception: Thursday 24 October, 6–8pm
Sight Reading, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
183 x 93 x 3 cm / 72 x 36.6 x 1.2 in framed
In Fitzpatrick’s paintings, figurative forms appear enmeshed within complex systems of processes, sounds, memories, and ideas. Bodies morph into musical and mechanical apparatus, while objects become animated or anthropomorphic. In one painting, a human heart is swapped for a glass armonica, an 18th-century instrument with melancholic tones once thought to induce madness. In another, a masked figure plucks at the strings of a suspension bridge, becoming a self-playing Aeolian harp.
The title A Musical Instrument references a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in which the pagan god Pan transforms a reed from the riverbed into a panpipe, not knowing the pain caused by ‘Making a poet out of a man’. Music-playing, and by extension, all creative expression, is positioned as something mediumistic, involuntary, and yet also a source of struggle. In Fitzpatrick’s paintings, however, it also appears to foster a kind of connectivity: spines become injected with musical notes; bodies seem to communicate through diagrammatic wave particles; tangled webs of veins, nerves, and arteries imply a porosity of self, a consciousness that expands beyond our physical bodies.
Justin Fitzpatrick
A Musical Instrument, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
180 x 140 cm / 70.9 x 55.1 in
183 x 143 cm / 72 x 56.3 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Poster for a Musical (The Prostate Piano), 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
140 x 180 cm / 55.1 x 70.9 in
143 x 183 x 3 cm / 56.3 x 72 x 1.2 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Pituitary-Thyroid Rosaries, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
180 x 140 cm / 70.9 x 55.1 in
182 x 142 x 2.6 cm / 71.7 x 55.9 x 1 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
The Glass Armonica (Dying at my music), 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
180 x 140 cm / 70.9 x 55.1 in
183 x 143 x 3 cm / 72 x 56.3 x 1.2 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Position-Momentum (Fugue), 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
140 x 180 cm / 55.1 x 70.9 in
143 x 183 x 3 cm / 56.3 x 72 x 1.2 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Aeolian harp suspension bridge, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
180 x 140 cm / 70.9 x 55.1 in
183 x 143 x 3 cm framed / 72 x 56.3 x 1.2 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Sight Reading, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
180 x 90 cm / 70.9 x 35.4 in
183 x 93 x 3 cm / 72 x 36.6 x 1.2 in framed
Justin Fitzpatrick
Memory of a birthday, 2024
oil on linen, oak frame
140 x 180 cm / 55.1 x 70.9 in
143 x 183 x 3 cm framed / 56.3 x 72 x 1.2 in framed
JUSTIN FITZPATRICK
b. 1985, Dublin, Ireland
Born in Dublin, Fitzpatrick studied in London (St Oswald’s School of Painting; the Royal College of Art) and is now based in Montargis, France. Fitzpatrick’s recent solo exhibitions include Ballotta, Centre d’art contemporain de La Ferme du Buisson, Greater Paris (2024) and Alpha Salad, The Tetley, Leeds (2023) alongside solo exhibitions at galleries including Seventeen, London; Sultana, Paris; and Margot Samel, New York. Recent group exhibitions include Arcanes, Rituels et Chimères, FRAC Corsica (2024).
Justin Fitzpatrick, Ballotta, La Ferme du Buisson, 2024
© photo Émile Ouroumov
Artist Talk | Dublin Gallery Weekend
At 5pm on Friday 8 November, Justin Fitzpatrick will appear in conversation with Thomas Conchou, curator and director of the Centre d'art contemporain de La Ferme du Buisson. Located in the Paris region, the art centre presented Fitzpatrick's first institutional solo exhibition in France earlier this year.
This event is free to attend, but booking is highly recommended: please book your ticket via Eventbrite to secure your place.
The talk is programmed for Dublin Gallery Weekend, 8–10 November. For full programme information, visit here.
For all media enquiries, including interviews and high-res image requests, please contact
Rosa Abbott, rosa@kerlin.ie.
Justin Fitzpatrick in conversation with Thomas Conchou, curator and director of the Centre d’art contemporain de La Ferme du Buisson.
At 5pm on Friday 8 November, Justin Fitzpatrick will appear in conversation with Thomas Conchou, curator and director of the Centre d’art contemporain de La Ferme du Buisson.
