LEE WELCH
Songs to the Siren
The Model, Sligo
Songs to the Siren takes its title from Tim Buckley’s song, focusing on the feeling of ambiguity and unresolved memory. Conceptually, it explores the dual existence of Irish writer Brian O’Nolan (Flann O’Brien/Myles na gCopaleen), reflecting on the act of concealment and the quiet melancholy that defined his output. The show deliberately resists closure, asking for patience and sustained attention from the viewer.
Lee Welch’s paintings operate in a register of quiet tension. Working across painting, drawing, and site-specific installation, he takes figures and domestic interiors from art history, literature, architecture, and the mechanics of tennis, stripping away detail to isolate their structural core.
Using flattened perspectives, dry surfaces, and muted palettes, domestic scenes take on an archival weight, closer to reconstructions of memory than direct observation. By paring daily actions down to simple shapes, Welch creates a sense of detachment, slowing down recognition and leaving the relationship between subject and viewer unresolved.
OEDIPUS
The Complex, DUBLIN
Lee Welch’s upcoming exhibition, Oedipus, spans painting, printmaking, and installation, offering a quietly arresting meditation on perception, memory, and connection. His visual language is spare but loaded with figures, gestures, and fragments reduced to their essentials—each carrying unexpected emotional weight. Drawing from art history, culture, and the mundane rituals of daily life, Welch distills images into something tender yet uneasy, their resonance lingering long after viewing.
All Flowers in Time Bend Towards the Sun
The Coach House, Dublin Castle
02/14/2025 - 05/11/2025
“Welch’s portrait It’s an Interesting Question, depicting a thoughtful woman in a rocking chair, chooses the painting’s most vibrant colours for the sitter’s dress; her face, head and bare arms seem to be fading into inexistence, as though her corporeality has been leached away by the force of her introspection.”
-Tom Lordan
Read the full Irish Times review here
SELECTED ARTWORKS
Installation view, No feeling is final, Live Collision at Project Art Centre, Dublin, 2019
Boredom is an emptiness filled with insistence, 2024
acrylic on canvas
25.5 x 20.5 cm / 10 x 8.1 in
It’s an interesting question, 2024
acrylic on polyester
50.8 x 40.6 cm / 20 x 16 in
I will try to speak with more simple words, 2022
acrylic on polyester
68.5 x 51 cm / 27 x 20.1 in
At the beginning of Putin's invasion of Ukraine Russian tennis star Andrey Rublev shared a pointed message of peace after winning a semi-final match at the Dubai Tennis Championships where he could be seen writing "No war please" on a camera.
Novak Djokovic reading the NY Times, 2024
acrylic on linen
64.5 x 50 cm / 25.4 x 19.7 in
Sommeil hollywoodien, 2023
acrylic on canvas
50 x 40 cm / 19.7 x 15.7 in
Fog has covered everything night painting, 2024
acrylic on linen
108 x 80 cm / 42.5 x 31.5 in
IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS
Pallas Projects/Studios are pleased to present Lee Welch—In Praise of Idleness, the second exhibition of our 2024 Artist-Initiated Projects programme.
IN PRAISE OF IDLENESS
18 APRIL - 5 MAY 2024
PALLAS PROJECTS/STUDIOS
Public Exhibitions
MOMENTS OF BEING
Curated by Brenda McParland
A group exhibition exploring the diversity of approaches to painting by a selection of some of the most interesting Irish artists working today.
18 JANUARY - 15 MARCH 2025
SOLSTICE ARTS CENTRE
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HERE COMES LOVE
2023, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin
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like stars and years, like numerals
2021, Berlin Opticians Gallery, Dublin
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No feeling is final
2019, Live Collision at Project Art Centre, Dublin
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and the tide was way out
2019, dlr Lexicon, Dublin
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Attitude Precedes Form
2017, The Library Project, Dublin
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In the Silence of the Night
2015, IMMA, Dublin
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Sleepwalkers
2013, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
News
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IMAGE Interiors Autumn/Winter 2022
Michelle Hanley highlights Lee Welch as an artist to watch.
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Arts Council
acquire harmonicas, jujubes, aspirins! for its Collection
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Ultraviolet Art Talks
with Lee Welch
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192nd RHA Annual Exhibition
Royal Hibernian Academy, 23 May – 24 July
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ROPES
Issue 30 featuring Lee Welch on the cover
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The Stinging Fly
current issue featuring Lee Welch on the cover
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NCAD
Studio Artist 2020-21
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Irish Arts Review Winter 2023
Aidan Dunne considers the group show ‘Shifting in Silence’
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Artist's
News
Irish Times
Explore Welch's elusive portrait in Tom Lordan's review of 'All Flowers in Time' at Dublin Castle. –Read here
TN2 magazine
Interview with some Live Collision artists, Project Arts Centre, Dublin. –Read here
This is Tomorrow
This is Tomorrow contemporary art magazine has published a review by Aidan Kelly Murphy on Paul Hallahan and Lee Welch’s exhibition ‘and the tide was way out’, dlr Lexicon Gallery, Dublin. –Read here
Mousse Magazine
Lee Welch “Two exercises in awareness and observation” at the Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. –Read here