LEE WELCH - OEDIPUS
€20
Plus shipping and handling
This hardcover monograph serves as the first comprehensive publication on Lee Welch, documenting and expanding on his Oedipus exhibition at The Complex, Dublin. Across 64 pages, the volume reproduces Welch’s recent paintings and earlier works, emphasising their poignant, obscured details through a series of critical insights. Martin Herbert explores the "hybrid modality of perception" required by Welch’s fragmented layouts and obscured faces, while Jennifer Higgie examines the work 'epochal defining while one creates beautiful problems', interpreting it as a symbol of human exhaustion inspired by a Ukrainian chess grandmaster. Finally, Mark O'Gorman discusses the exhibition's choreography, describing the walls as partitions that create a rhythmic "seeing and not seeing."
CONTRIBUTORS
Text by Jennifer Higgie, Martin Herbert and Mark O'Gorman.
PUBLICATION DATE
December 2025
LANGUAGE
English
PUBLISHER
spider & ink
COMPOSITION
Hardcover
PAGES
64
SIZE
210 x 140 mm
ISBN
9781068307058
The Collector’s Edition
All Apologies, 2025, Lithographic print on Somerset Satin 300gsm, Edition 4 of 20 (Hand-Embellished Collector's Edition) Unique within a series of 10 hand-finished works, 30.5 x 24.5 cm / 12 x 9.6 in
€250
For collectors, a special edition is available that pairs the 64-page monograph with an exclusive, signed print titled All Apologies.
The Print Based on John Deakin’s 1964 photograph of Lucian Freud, All Apologies distills a moment heavy with history into something ghostly and elusive.
The Edition Details While the total edition of All Apologies consists of 20 prints, this Collector’s Edition features only 10 works. Each has been individually hand-embellished by Welch with watercolour.
Format: Monograph + Hand-embellished lithograph
Availability: Limited to 10 unique examples
*While part of a limited edition of 20, these 10 specific works have been uniquely hand-embellished by Lee Welch. This process transforms each lithograph into a one-of-a-kind hybrid work, distinguishing the Collector’s Edition from the standard edition.
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Poster
€40
This signed poster featuring a detail from the painting for a long time I had wanted (2025) was produced in 2025, in conjunction with the exhibition Oedipus at The Complex, Dublin. In for a long time I had wanted, quietly honours composer Arvo Pärt with somber grays and a single red accent, reflecting the stillness and restraint of his music. The works feel intimate but universal, offering space for personal projection. The poster is also available unsigned.
Publisher: The Complex
Year: 2025
Dimensions: 70 x 50 cm
Framed: Sold unframed
ABOUT THE ARTIST
LEE WELCH
Lee Welch (born Louisville, Kentucky) currently lives and works in Dublin, Ireland. He received his BFA from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in 2009 and his MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam in 2011. Welch has held prestigious residencies at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, and the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada, supported by the Arts Council.
His work has been featured in numerous significant exhibitions both nationally and internationally, including The National Gallery, Dublin; The Glucksman Gallery, Cork; the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Spain; Kerlin Gallery, Dublin; and Objectif, Antwerp.
In 2025, Welch received The Homiens Art Prize in New York and co-founded the arts initiative Hallahan & Welch, which debuted with a significant group exhibition at Dublin Castle's Coach House Gallery.
Welch's works are held in prominent private and public collections such as the Arts Council, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, and the OPW - State Art Collection. His practice has also been recognised in Artforum, Art Monthly, Frieze, Irish Arts Review, and The Irish Times.
These are restrained, elliptical works—but their effect is lasting. Welch doesn’t just document a fractured world. He recreates the textures of living in it: the disorientation, the fragility, the fleeting moments of connection that still, somehow, endure.
