Belfast Artist’s First Solo London Show

An award winning EastEnders actress has joined Northern Ireland actor Jamie Dornan in backing Belfast artist Niall Conlon who has turned the old racist message of ‘No Blacks, No Irish, No Dogs’ on its head.

Diane Parish who plays Denise Fox in the long running BBC soap has bought a limited edition of Niall’s work ‘More’ which advocates More Blacks, More Irish and More Dogs.

 In an Instagram post Diane applauded Niall. She said her parents had come to England from the Caribbean and encountered prejudice and posters from boarding houses saying that they weren’t welcome. Which she said made Niall’s work all the more relevant for her.

 Many of Niall’s newest paintings have themes which feature repeated words like More Peace, More Humanity, More Love and More Empathy.

Diane’s endorsement came as Niall, a former Ulster Rugby player and city dealer who quit the worlds of sport and finance to concentrate on his art, launched his first solo exhibition in London, in the prestigious Zari gallery.

 One of the buyers was his boyhood friend Jamie Dornan who already has a number of his works in pride of his place in his English home

Dornan’s newly acquired painting is a huge artwork with a series of faces on it and is entitled More Wonder.

Niall says that anti-racist painting called More was a game-changer for him, adding: “I decided to challenge the old racist messages that were once said to have been common in England making it clear that people renting out property  didn’t want to have anything to do with black or Irish people. And there were also notices that ‘Irish need not apply’ for jobs.

 “I’d heard some people in England trying to argue that the anti-immigrant signs never actually existed but I did some research which confirmed for me that they weren’t myths

 “So I resolved  to turn a negative into a positive in my painting which  caused quite a stir and it sold so quickly that I decided to make prints from it  and they have been bought all over the world including, I’m happy to say, by the Ulster Museum.

 “The More painting which is raw and ‘in your face’ seems to have been appreciated  particularly within the Irish diaspora who may be remembered their grandparents telling them they had been faced with the offensive racist signs back in the day.

 “The fact that Diane Parish bought one of them and publicly supported me was a massive boost. And when it came to a follow-up exhibition  I hit on the name More is More. “

Niall who works from a studio on the Lisburn Road says many of his paintings feature what he calls ‘mad red dogs’ which he knows people either love or hate but which help him ‘create edgy, visceral art that makes folk sit up and take notice.’

 At a time of bloody wars in Ukraine and the Middle East the Zari gallery says that Niall’s work is especially important, adding: “He  invites us to reflect on the desire for harmony in a world marked by fierce, untamed forces.

 “His call is for peace love and understanding among the chaos and his paintings are testaments to his belief in art’s ability to transcend, challenge and speak louder than words alone. “

Niall who says having someone like Jamie Dornan in his corner is another major plus,  credits the actor  with persuading  him to take a risk and give up his steady job in London to  go full tilt in the more precarious world of painting.

 “He has always been incredibly encouraging and as soon as I showed him some of my paintings he said he wanted to buy them

 “Last year too he was extremely supportive of our art project designed to raise money for mental health charities here,” said Niall who along with another Belfast artist Paul Doran raised thousands of pounds for the Minding Minds Together project.

 Jamie was present at a function to promote the charity and to ‘discuss the positive benefits that the arts and sports can have on mental health. ‘

In the meantime Niall is planning a break after his London show but he’s hopeful that he can mount an exhibition back home in Belfast in the not too distant future.