about anthony
Anthony Carey is a Dublin-based Irish artist creating original abstract and figurative paintings shaped by memory, belonging, grief and emotional resilience. Working mainly in textured acrylic and mixed media, with drawing, scraping and repeated mark-making at the centre of his process, he makes atmospheric works that move between the human figure, abstraction and landscape.
His paintings often begin with something felt: a memory, a place, a figure, or a moment of loss. Through layers of colour, texture and repeated adjustment, he tries to give form to feelings that are not always easy to explain in words. Drawing sits beneath much of the work, not always as outline, but as trace, pressure, scraping, erasure and repeated mark-making.
The human figure remains an important part of his practice, often appearing fractured, partial, or quietly present. Alongside this, landscape-based painting has become another way of carrying emotional experience. Horizon, weather, distance and atmosphere allow the work to speak about loss, endurance, awe and the search for a sense of place.
Carey sees figure, abstraction and landscape as connected ways of exploring memory and human experience. A figure can hold the feeling of a place. A landscape can carry the emotional weight of a person. An abstract surface can suggest something half-remembered, unresolved, or still forming.
His work is also informed by mythology, spirituality and Jungian thought, particularly ideas of inner and outer landscape, threshold and transformation. These ideas sit beneath the paintings rather than explaining them directly, leaving space for viewers to bring their own memories and associations.
Carey’s work has been exhibited in Ireland and internationally, including at the Chianciano Biennale in Italy, where he received an award in the Abstract category in 2022. His paintings are held in private collections across Ireland, Europe, North America and Australia. You can explore available paintings, view selected works, or read the full CV for exhibition history and professional details.
Artist Statement
My work often begins with a feeling of not fully belonging to a place, a moment, or even the world as it is. Since the death of my wife, that sense of dislocation has become part of how I understand memory, grief and the search for home. Painting gives me a way to stay with those feelings without needing to explain them too neatly.
I work across abstraction, figuration and landscape because each one offers a different way of holding experience. Sometimes the figure appears fractured, partial, or quietly present. At other times, the feeling is carried by a horizon, a shoreline, weather, distance, or the atmosphere of a place.
The paintings are built slowly through layers of acrylic, plaster, mixed media, drawing, scraping and repeated adjustment. Drawing sits beneath much of the work, not always as outline, but as trace, pressure, erasure and repeated mark-making. I scrape back, cover, reveal and rework the surface until something begins to settle. The process is physical, but also reflective. I am often searching for the point where the work begins to hold a mood or presence of its own.
I am drawn to mythology, spirituality and Jungian thought, especially ideas of threshold, archetype and transformation, but I do not want the work to be read like a puzzle. These ideas sit quietly beneath the paintings, and are more about shaping the atmosphere rather than a fixed meaning.
What matters most to me is that the work leaves space: for memory, for stillness, for what hurts, for what remains unresolved, and for what might still be changing. I want the paintings to hold that space gently, so that viewers can meet them through their own memories and experiences.
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Award Winner – Chianciano Biennale, Italy, 2022 (Abstract Category)
- Solo Exhibitions – Belonging: A Quest for Home (2024), Small Talk (2022)
- International Group Shows – Ireland, USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Australia
- Publications – Connection, Letters from Dublin (2020), Ask Me Arse (2020 & 2025 ed.)
- Film Recognition – 10+ international awards for Story, a one-minute film