Artist Statement

My work responds to themes of masculinity, identity, and sexuality in visual culture. The nude male figure features prominently in my work. Often cypher-like, they exist as culturally and aesthetically idealised bodies; a subversion of the eroticised female found in Western European painting tradition. My figures are often depicted within an unidentifiable and strange landscape which recalls island – or specifically Irish – mythology. Against this backdrop, the figures embody a queer freedom of existence which is untroubled by the cultural assumptions of the outside world, ripe for viewers’ fantasies and aspirations but laced with poignancy around their attainability.