Peter Monaghan

Pastel Floret

2024

Award winning artist Peter Monaghan was born in Ireland in 1955 and studied at the National College of Art and Design in the mid 1970s. Monaghan then joined Dara O’Lochlainn’s pioneering graphic design firm, with his work winning a number of prestigious awards including several sponsored by the Institute of Creative Advertising and Design, the IDI, and the European Design Annual. In 1983 he set up his own graphic design firm called Monaghan Design, later becoming a partner in Creative Inputs; working with such clients as AIB, ESB, Jefferson Smurfit, and the Office of Public Works. Monaghan also designed a number of works for the National Gallery and the Irish Museum of Modern Art. In 2000, he gave up design work to concentrate full-time on painting and sculpture; “My work is the result of a disciplined research into the experience of looking – the experience of pure visual sensation and aesthetic pleasure. Simple forms and colours are used in repetition to engage the viewer. It is a dialogue about light, colour, movement and illusion; exploring the relationships and contrasts between painted flat surfaces, protruding spheres, cubes or geometric shapes. The work aims to evoke a response from the viewer". - Peter Monaghan Monaghan's artwork has won national recognition including the Jim McNaughton Bursary for Commissioned Artists as part of the National Allianz Business to Arts Awards. His large-scale installations can be seen in prestigious locations such as the V.I.P. Presidential Suite in Dublin Airport, the Gibson Hotel, the Dean Hotel, the Beacon Clinic, and University College Dublin’s recent scientific centre. Monaghan has also exhibited at the RHA in Dublin and had successful exhibitions in London, New York, Miami, Singapore, Brussels, and Hong Kong. "My work is the result of a disciplined research into the experience of looking - the experience of pure visual sensation and aesthetic pleasure...It is a dialogue about light, colour, movement and illusion; exploring the relationships and contrasts between painted flat surfaces, protruding spheres, cubes or geometric shapes." - Peter Monaghan (2019).