Artist of the Month, January 2024 - Alastair MacLennan

Alastair MacLennan was born in Scotland and has lived and worked in Belfast since 1975. He is one of our most eminent practitioners of live art, although his practice also embraces drawing, sculpture and installation. His art is social and political, concerned with the inter-dependence of self and community, and it explores ethical-aesthetic values, including those of harmony and balance, and the necessity of spiritual well-being. Alastair is currently Emeritus Professor of Fine Art, at the University of Ulster, Belfast, an Honorary Fellow of Dartington College of Art, Devon, and an Honorary Associate of the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow.

Liminal Series 1 is part of the Liminal Series, which is a series of 13 works that are part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland Collection. Created between 2019 and 2022, some of the works are created as charcoal drawings, whilst others using black oil paint, turpentine and water on paper.  The drawings take Influence from Zen philosophy and involve the interfusion of the five elements (earth, air, fire, water and ether), working from the inside out in present time and working through allusion rather than illusion of surface appearances.

Further information and Alastair MacLennan and his work can be found at www.amaclennan-archive.ac.uk