Michael Warren (sculptor)

Michael Warren (sculptor)
Michael Warren (born 1950 in Gorey, County Wexford, Ireland) is an Irish sculptor who produces site-specific public art.
Inspired by Oisín Kelly, his art teacher at St Columba's College, Michael Warren studied at Bath Academy of Art, at Trinity College Dublin and, from 1971 to 1975, at the Accademia di Brera in Milan. He now lives and works in Co. Wexford.
He has a number of very visible works in Ireland, including the large sweeping wood sculpture in front of the Dublin Civic Offices. Wood Quay, where the civic offices stand, was the centre of Viking Dublin and the sculpture evokes the form, and the powerful grace, of a Viking ship. It also reflects vertically the horizontal sweep of the nearby Liffey as it enters its bay. A complex balance of meanings matching a delicate, though massive, balance of substance is typical of his work. Warren himself describes the useful ambiguity of abstraction (Hill 1998)
With Roland Tallon he created Tulach a' tSolais (Mound of Light), a memorial to the 1798 rebellion at Oulart Hill, County Wexford. Here, a room was hollowed out of a small hill; the room contains two abstract curved oak forms and is illuminated by natural light falling through a long slot in its ceiling and walls. Despite the unusual and abstract constitution of this memorial and despite the fraught political resonance of the rebellion, Tulach a' tSolais is popular and something of a local attraction. His Gateway in Dún Laoghaire was less popular with some local people and it was eventually removed and returned to the artist.
At the northern entrance to the village of Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, is a sculpture by Michael Warren, depicting the thrones of the ancient seat of the Kings of South Leinster at Dinn Righ (The hill of the Kings). The Kings of Leinster lived near the village.
Work on display
Cloch na gCoillte (2013) Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland
Unbroken Line (2013) Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland
Antaeus II (2010) Scott Cottage, Rossdohan, County Kerry, Ireland
Janus (2010) Western Gate Building, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland
M-7 23, homage to Eileen Gray II (2010) Department of Environment, Wexford, Ireland
Stele for Thomas Wyse (2009) Waterford Institute of Technology, Waterford, Ireland
Obelisk (2009) Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre, Oldbridge Estate, County Meath, Ireland
Lieu de Rencontre (2008) Dar Sabre, Marrakech, Morocco
M-7 23 (2008) Expo 2008, Zaragoza, Spain
Wave Form (2008) No1 Warrington Place, Dublin, Ireland
Reliquery (2007) St Dominic's College, Cabra, Dublin, Ireland
Go deo, homage to Samuel Beckett, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Em Louvor dos Limites (2005) Carrazeda de Ansiães, Portugal
No Pasaran (2004) the Mall, Waterford, Ireland
Amor Fati (2003) Jiaobanshan Park, Taoyuan, Taiwan
Bronze Arch (2003) Gongju, Korea
Her Hair (II) (2003) Courtown Harbour, County Wexford, Ireland
Gateway (2002) Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland
East Point (2001) East Point, Dublin, Ireland
Pasqua (III) (2001) University of Valencia, Spain
Ceatharloch (2001) Carlow, Ireland
Millennium Sculpture (2001) Radió Telefís Éireann, Dublin, Ireland
Dolmen (2000) Irish Management Institute, Dublin, Ireland
Almanac (2000) Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Tulach a’ tSolais (1999) Oulart Hill, County Wexford, Ireland
Atlanticus (1999) County Buildings, Galway, Ireland
Pasqua (II) (1999) A&L Goodbody HQ, International Financial Services Centre, Dublin, Ireland
El Arado y las Estrellas (1998) Metropolitan Park, Quito, Ecuador
Antaeus (1998), Devil's Glen, County Wicklow, Ireland
Chi (III) (1998) Rathdown School, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin, Ireland
Her Hair (1997) East Point, Dublin, Ireland
Hors les murs (1996) Clermont-Ferrand, France
Trade Winds (1996) Santo Tirso, Portugal
Ophelia (1st version) (1995) Dieudonné, Oise, France
Ophelia (2nd version) (1995) Castlelough, County Clare, Ireland
Alizes et tortues (1994) Lamentin, Guadeloupe, French West Indies
Wood Quay (1994) Civic Offices, Dublin, Ireland
Eena-Meena-Mina-Mo (1993) Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, USA
Salmon Fall (1993) University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Living Relic (1993) Dunleer, County Louth, Ireland
A Full Moon in March (1992) Minamikata, Japan
Elegy to Light (1992) island of Thassos, Greece
Pagan Place (1991) Encamp, Principality of Andorra
Chi (1991) Allied Dunbar, Swindon, England
Throughway (1991) University College Dublin, Ireland
Beneath the ’bow (1991) Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Chi (1990) Oloron Sainte-Marie, France
Journey Inland (1990) Campo de las Naciones, Madrid, Spain
Thrones (1989) Hakone Open Air Museum, Japan
Bio-dynamics (1989) Conrad Hotel, Dublin, Ireland
Antigone (1988) Olympic Sculpture Park, Seoul, Korea
De-creation (VI) (1987) Ferrybank, Wexford, Ireland
Timber Construction for Plano (1986) Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, USA
After Image (1986) Castletown Cox, County Kilkenny, Ireland
Thrones (1986) Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland
Countermovement (1985) Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Void Anchored (1985) Kilkenny Castle, Kilkenny, Ireland
Escultura Blanca (1985) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Articulation of Void (1985) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Broken Obelisk (1985) Foxrock, County Dublin, Ireland
Chi (I) (1984) Ulster Museum, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Family (1983) Gilbey's of Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
Noche Oscura (1981) Dublin Port & Docks Board, Dublin, Ireland
De-creation (V) (1978) Radió Telefís Éireann, Dublin, Ireland
References
Further reading
Suzanne McNab (2002) Warren, Michael in Brian Lalor (Ed.), The Encyclopedia of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
Judith Hill (1998) Irish public sculpture. Dublin: Four Courts Press.
Rod Mengham and others (2010) Michael Warren: Unbroken Line. Carlow: Visual Centre for Contemporary Art & The George Bernard Shaw Theatre.
External links
Artist's homepage
Biographical note on the RTÉ website
Aosdána biographical note
Full-length interview
1950 births
Living people
People from Gorey
Aosdána members
Irish male sculptors
People educated at St Columba's College, Dublin
20th-century Irish sculptors
21st-century Irish sculptors
Artists from County Wexford