CV

Conor Harrington (b. Cork, Ireland) is a painter preoccupied with the theatre of power – its rituals, its ruins, and the brittle performances of masculinity that prop it up. Working at monumental scale, he draws on the compositional gravitas of classical painting, only to unravel it. His canvases are collisions: tight realism jostling with wild, gestural abstraction. In this friction, Harrington interrogates the myths of empire and the illusions of permanence that history insists on repeating.

Drawing on his Irish background, Harrington confronts the lingering shadow of empire and the Catholic Church. His work borrows the visual codes of ceremony – military uniforms, ecclesiastical dress, state pageantry – not to exalt, but to dissect. His figures, often white male archetypes, embody the contradictions of patriarchal power: performative, brittle, and often absurd.

Masculinity, in all its allure and toxicity, is a persistent undercurrent. These men, caught mid-parade or frozen in confrontation, appear less heroic than haunted – by history, by performance, by themselves. The effect is at once critical and compassionate, peeling back the costume of power to reveal the soft, unstable body beneath.

Harrington began his career as a graffiti artist and remains deeply influenced by hip-hop culture and the energy of the street. He earned his BFA from Limerick School of Art and Design and has lived in London for two decades. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Saatchi Gallery, London; the Museum of Urban and Contemporary Art, Munich; and Southampton Arts Centre, New York.