Gordon Woods (1938-2022)

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has learned with sadness of the death of the Belfast artist and former member of the board of the Arts Council, Gordon Woods, who died earlier this week.

Gordon’s first solo exhibition was at the Queen’s Gallery in Belfast in 1959. He would go on to exhibit nationally and internationally, including organising and participating in the Free International University’s programme at Documenta 6 in Kassel, Germany, with Joseph Beuys; one-person shows at the Arts Council, Orchard and Project galleries in the late 1970s/early 80s; the ‘Ulster Art in the 80s’ group exhibition at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin in 1988, which featured many of the leading local contemporary artists of the time; through to, very recently, the 2021 Evanston + Vicinity Biennial group exhibition in the USA. His work is represented in public and private collections, including those of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Ulster Museum.

Gordon Woods is remembered by the Arts Council both for his significant contribution and as an important artist in his own right in the recent history of the visual arts in Northern Ireland.