May 2022

Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition

Colin’s 3D painting, ‘Glen’, has been shortlisted for the RCSI Art Award at the RHA Annual Exhibition in Dublin. The exhibition continues until 24th July 2022.

To view ‘Glen’, please click here.

September 2021

Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition

Colin has been awarded the Solomon Fine Art Award for Sculpture at the RHA Annual Exhibition in Dublin. The exhibition continues until 30th October 2021.

To view ‘Strainseir 4’, please click here.

June 2021

Colin's appointment as Chancellor of Ulster University

June 2021

Portrait of Edna O'Brien unveiled in London

In June 2021, Colin’s portrait of Irish author, Edna O’Brien was unveiled in the Royal Suite at Claridge’s Hotel London. In attendance were Edna O’Brien, Sasha O’Brien, The Ambassador of Ireland to the UK, Sir Antony Gormley, Sir Martin Sorrell, Caroline Michel, Dermot Desmond, Alan Yentob, Sir Tony Gallagher, Eamonn Holmes, Paddy McKillen, Andrew O’Hagan, Lady Rogers and Colin & Pauline Davidson.

Speaking at the event, Edna O’Brien recalled some of the experiences when she sat for Davidson at her London home last September, saying it had brought back memories from 80 years ago. She added: “I felt I was being stripped but stripped in a good way that would be necessary to what would be eventually on the painting. As a writer I never want to lose my past and never to lose my earliest feelings and impressions and fears and all else.”

Also speaking at the event, the Ambassador of Ireland to the UK said he was “delighted” the portrait will have its permanent home at the Embassy. He said: “In years to come I am sure visitors to the embassy will gaze on the portrait and be delighted that the Country Girl has returned home.”

Colin said he hopes the portrait captures some sense of spirit and courage of a “remarkable woman”. Addressing Edna O’Brien, he said: “You are very much loved and appreciated. You have written modern Irish history in your own way and we thank you for that.”

June 2019

Portrait of President Bill Clinton unveiled in New York

Colin’s portrait of President Bill Clinton has been unveiled at a joint US/Ireland event held at the Clinton Foundation in New York. Mr Clinton, who was a key figure in the Northern Ireland peace process, said it captured the part of his personality he tried to keep hidden. “I’m very grateful because the painting shows me in a way I would not be prepared to show myself, in my ‘I don’t know, but I sure hope so’ mood. This captures a part of my personality I try to keep hidden because I try always to be upbeat, I always try to be positive, to think the best is around the corner.” The portrait will be hung at the Clinton Centre in Enniskillen after being shared for viewing elsewhere, at sites to be determined.

May 2019

Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Exhibition

Colin is exhibiting his self portrait at the Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Exhibition.

Piano Nobile, Kings Place, London. Until September 2019.

June 2018

'Silent Testimony' in Derry

23 June – 16 September 2018

Nerve Visual Gallery, Ebrington, Derry

‘Silent Testimony’, an exhibition of portrait paintings by Colin Davidson, reveals the stories of eighteen people who are connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles – a turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards.

May 2018

Portrait of President Bill Clinton

Colin has been commissioned to paint the portrait of President Bill Clinton. The sitting took place in New York. The finished painting is expected by the end of 2018.

April 2018

'Silent Testimony' returns to the Ulster Museum Belfast, to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.

6 – 22 April 2018

‘Silent Testimony’, an exhibition of portrait paintings by Colin Davidson, reveals the stories of eighteen people who are connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles – a turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards.

September 2017

'Jerusalem' in New York

‘Jerusalem’ by Colin Davidson

September 11 – November 14, 2017

92nd Street Y (between 91st & 92nd street)
1395 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10128
212.415.5500

Public Viewing Hours:
Sep 23, 11am-3pm
Sep 24, 11-3pm
Oct 9, 11-3pm
Oct 12, 11am-3pm
Oct 18, 12pm-4pm
Oct 30, 11-3pm
Nov 2, 1pm-5pm
Nov 6, 1pm-5pm
Nov 9, 1pm-5pm

 

Recently shown in London to great acclaim, the exhibition ‘Jerusalem’ comprises 12 large-scale portraits of individuals who live or work in the ancient, mystical troubled city of Jerusalem. Among them are Jews, Muslims, Christians, a politician, a Benedictine monk, a doctor, a peace activist, a hotel worker, a Holocaust survivor — a cross section that lives together with conflict, prejudice and separation. The theme of common humanity is explored through these paintings.

A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be available with an essay written by eminent human rights lawyer, author and winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for non fiction, Professor Philippe Sands QC.

https://www.92y.org/exhibits

July 2017

'Silent Testimony' at Dublin Castle

Coach House Gallery, Dublin Castle
1st July – 8th September 2017

open daily 10am – 5pm. Free.

Silent Testimony, an exhibition of portrait paintings by Colin Davidson, reveals the stories of eighteen individuals who are connected through their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles – a turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards. This body of work, first shown at the Ulster Museum Belfast in 2015, acknowledges how the Troubles had, and still has, a profound impact on thousands of individuals, those who were injured, their families, the families of those who died and the wider community.

May 2017

Portrait of Ed Sheeran

The National Portrait Gallery in London have acquired Colin Davidson’s portrait of Ed Sheeran. It will be on display at the gallery from 3rd May 2017.

Colin Davidson says: ‘When painting a portrait I am looking for the moment when the person is almost unaware of me being there and I feel I got it with Ed. I deliberately didn’t want Ed to perform and that was odd for him. But there is a youthful aspect to the portrait but also something experienced beyond his years.’

A limited edition giclee print is available from the National Portrait Gallery shop. https://npgshop.org.uk/collections/limited-editions/products/ed-sheeran-unframed-print

March 2017

'Jerusalem' in London

‘Jerusalem’ by Colin Davidson

9th – 28th March 2017

at 33 Fitzroy Square, London, W1T 6EU. Tel: 00 353 1 644 9459

The exhibition will continue until 28th March 2017. Monday – Saturday 10.00am – 5.30pm.

 

Following a visit to the ancient, mystical and multi-denominational city of Jerusalem in January 2014, Colin Davidson painted twelve large scale portraits of individuals who live or work in the city. Within the dozen Jerusalemites are Jews, Muslims, Christians, a politician, a Benedictine monk, a doctor, a peace activist, a hotel worker, a holocaust survivor, a cross section that lives together with conflict, prejudice and separation. Twelve subjects from across the denominations with differing perspectives. From the well-known (the Mayor, a Nobel prize winner, a founder of a peace movement) to the unknown, these dozen portraits tell a story of a city that projects a complexity of meaning like no other.

The enlarged scale of the portraits situated together in the same gallery space heightens the reality that, in spite of their differences, imagined or real, the subjects all inhabit the same space, amplifying the idea of people living side by side in one troubled city. These works demonstrate both Davidson’s technical prowess as a portrait artist and his profound sensibility to the human condition. The exhibition opened in Dublin in May 2014 to huge critical acclaim.

A fully illustrated catalogue of the exhibition will be available with an essay written by eminent human rights lawyer, author and winner of the Baillie Gifford prize for non fiction, Professor Philippe Sands QC.

 

November 2016

HM The Queen unveils new portrait by Colin Davidson

On the 8th of November, The Queen unveiled a new official portrait, painted by Colin Davidson. The painting, revealed at a reception in Crosby Hall, Chelsea, was commissioned by Co-Operation Ireland, of which the monarch is a joint patron.

The Queen sat for the portrait in Buckingham Palace, just after her 90th birthday, in May 2016.

In a short statement, Colin Davidson said: “It was a privilege and honour to have been invited to paint The Queen’s portrait for Co-Operation Ireland. I have witnessed The Queen’s actions to advance healing in the Anglo-Irish relationship, and It is my hope that this painting will help acknowledge her contribution.”

The painting will tour the UK and Ireland during 2017.

October 2016

HM Queen Elizabeth II

Buckingham Palace have released an operational note announcing that Colin Davidson has recently completed a portrait of The Queen. The portrait will be unveiled in London by The Queen on 8th November 2016. In a short statement, Colin Davidson said: “It was a privilege and honour to have been invited to paint The Queen’s portrait for Co-Operation Ireland. I have witnessed The Queen’s actions to advance healing in the Anglo-Irish relationship, and It is my hope that this painting will help acknowledge her contribution.”

September 2016

Reflected Gleams, New York

The Irish Arts Center in New York presents ‘Reflected Gleams’ by Colin Davidson.

This small exhibition comprises large-scale portrait paintings of artists who are connected to the Irish Arts Center, including honorary chair Liam Neeson, the Muldoon’s Picnic curator and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, 2010 PoetryFest poet Sinéad Morrissey, Olivier-Award winning playwright Marie Jones (Rock Doves), 2011 PoetryFest poet and T. S. Eliot Prize-winner Michael Longley, Oscar-winning musician Glen Hansard and more.

September 2016

Ten Night Paintings

Painting is Davidson’s foremost endeavour. The portraits came when the artist was in his early forties. He had already completed a series based on reflections in shop windows and another of Belfast cityscapes. His first nude paintings were made more than twenty years ago. While it is true that much technical skill and a way of seeing was brought from his previous work in particular treatment seen in his portraiture, it is also the case that this period of painting large scale human faces has added a further dimension of understanding to these ten nudes. Davidson does have a particular style, code and, yes, language which translates from one subject to another and what is most apparent is the facility and natural ability to put paint on canvas. The paintings range in size from the 117 x 127 cm scale familiar to his portraits down to 30 x 28 cm and in each case Davidson has successfully avoided academic cliché creating quietly dynamic dramas that are imbued with human voices that Davidson expresses so personally.

January 2016

Silent Testimony in Paris

19 janvier – 6th mars 2016
Centre Culturel Irlandais
5, rue des Irlandais
75005 Paris

Cette saisissante exposition du portraitiste Colin Davidson dévoile les histoires de dix-huit personnes qui, toutes, ont perdu un ou plusieurs proches durant les Troubles, période sombre qui a marqué l’Irlande du Nord à partir de la fin des années 1960. Colin Davidson s’est fait connaître dans le monde entier grâce à sa série de portraits grand format d’acteurs, musiciens, poètes et écrivains, parmi lesquels Brad Pitt, Glen Hansard ou Seamus Heaney. En peignant ces visages célèbres, il a commencé à s’intéresser non pas à leur notoriété, mais à ce qui faisait d’eux des êtres humains. Cette exploration continue de l’« humanité ordinaire » constitue le point de départ de Silent Testimony. Jusqu’à aujourd’hui, l’artiste né en 1968, qui a grandi à Belfast et suivi des études d’art à l’Université d’Ulster, n’avait jamais réagi ouvertement à ce qu’il a vu ou personnellement vécu pendant les Troubles. L’exposition se veut un témoignage fort, reflétant la façon dont ce conflit a eu, et continue à avoir, un impact profond sur des milliers d’individus : les blessés et leur famille, les proches des personnes qui y ont perdu la vie, mais également la communauté dans son ensemble. Cette exposition est presentée en association avec l’Ulster Museum, Belfast, National Museums Northern Ireland où elle a été montrée pour la première fois de juin 2015 à janvier 2016.

December 2015

TIME Magazine Cover

TIME has always enjoyed the challenge of creating compelling cover portraits. Over the years, they’ve commissioned artists from Marc Chagall to Roy Lichtenstein to Andy Warhol; for this Person of the Year, creative director D.W. Pine reached out to Colin Davidson to make an oil painting of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “For me, it’s about the eyes,” D.W. says. “The realistic detail of his subjects’ eyes draws the viewer in closer to fully appreciate the sculptural use of his bold brushstrokes.” Davidson lives and works near Belfast; since 2010 his focus has been on grand-scale portraits, which have won many international awards. “I have become increasingly preoccupied, not with a sitter’s celebrity but more with their status as a human being,” says Davidson. “Although likeness is vital in my practice, it is my hope that a sense of the German Chancellor’s dignity, compassion and humanity is woven into the paint.”

June 2015

Silent Testimony

5th June 2015 – 17th January 2016
Ulster Museum, Belfast

Silent Testimony, an exhibition of portrait paintings by Colin Davidson, reveals the stories of eighteen people who are connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles – a turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards.

Since 2010, Davidson has become internationally renowned for his series of large-scale portraits of actors, musicians, poets and writers. While painting these familiar faces, he became increasingly preoccupied, not with their celebrity, but more with their status as human beings. This continuing exploration of ‘common humanity’ is the foundation on which Silent Testimony rests.

Until now, the artist, who grew up in Belfast and studied art at the University of Ulster, has not responded overtly to what he witnessed or personally experienced during the Troubles. Silent Testimony is a powerful response which reflects on how the conflict has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on thousands of individuals – the injured, their families, the families of those who died and the wider community.

May 2015

Colin Davidson’s portrait of Brad Pitt, completed in 2013, will be shown for the first time in “Eye-Pop: The Celebrity Gaze” at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC, between 22nd May 2015 and 10th July 2016.

A familiar face on screen since the late 1980s, Brad Pitt won a Golden Globe Award for his role as a patient in the psychological thriller Twelve Monkeys (1995). Nominated for four Academy Awards, he served as a producer on 12 Years a Slave (2013), which won a Best Picture Oscar. Colin Davidson’s portrait of Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard caught Pitt’s eye when he saw it reproduced on an album cover. On several occasions, the actor and artist met in London, Surrey, and Buckinghamshire, where they spent time together painting and talking. During these sessions, Davidson began a series of portraits of Pitt, including this one, made just before Pitt cut his hair short for the filming of Fury (2014). The glassy, introspective eyes are typical of Davidson’s noncommissioned portraits, as he seeks “a certain vulnerable quality.” He desires to capture his subjects “lost in thought,” removed from the celebrity persona that we normally see in the mass media.

February 2015

September 2013

Opening: Tuesday 3 September, 6pm – 8pm

4 September – 6 October 2013

Continuing his exploration of large heads as landscapes which represent the inner self of the sitter, Colin Davidson’s Between The Words is the artist’s first solo exhibition of large-scale portraits and drawings in Northern Ireland. The subjects portrayed are recognisable public figures such as Irish poet Seamus Heaney, actor and theatre director Simon Callow, and musician and songwriter Gary Lightbody amongst others. Almost carving the paint, the artist adds a topographical aspect to his paintings, revealing the tension of the sitters whilst they are lost in thought.

With their overwhelming presence and sense of grandeur, Davidson’s portraits create a sense of uneasiness in the viewer, with their subjects simultaneously close to us but just out of reach.

October 2011

May 2011

The painting ‘Thread the Light (Portrait of Glen Hansard)’ has been selected to be exhibited in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery, London. The annual BP Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait exhibition in the world, promoting the very best in contemporary portrait painting. The exhibition runs between 16th June and 18th September 2011.

www.npg.org.uk

May 2011

Colin Davidson has been collaborating with the Lyric Theatre Belfast, producing a series of large-scale portrait heads, to be exhibited in the theatre on an ongoing basis. The series, which is on loan from the artist, comprises paintings of Brian Friel, Paul Brady, Marie Jones and Adrian Dunbar amongst others. The Lyric Theatre opens on 1st May 2011.

October 2010

The painting Thread the Light (Portrait of Glen Hansard) was awarded the Perpetual Gold Medal at the Royal Ulster Academy, Belfast in October 2010. This award is sponsored by the McKenna Gallery, Omagh. The RUA Annual Exhibition, in the Ulster Museum, runs until 14th November 2010.

June 2010

The painting Just Sharp Reminding (Portrait of Duke Special) has been awarded the ‘Ireland – US Council and Irish Arts Review Portraiture Award’ at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin. Colin Davidson will be presented with the award at a Gala Dinner in Dublin Castle at the end of June. The painting will be featured in the summer issue of the Irish Arts Review which is published in June. The RHA Annual Exhibition runs until 30th July 2010.