The limpid colour palette in Gabhann Dunne's work gives it a visionary, almost poetic quality. Topographical features, figures, buildings and animals emerge from a richly-opaque ground, conjuring a hauntingly-beautiful parallel world. He uses this romantic landscape to critique humanity's annexation of the natural world and our displacement of other species, often appropriating and re-working found imagery to complement his invented narratives.
The work is informed by a broad spectrum of authors, social commentators and ecologists, such as John Gray, Mark Rowlands and Emma Marris. Painting is not used analytically but rather to interrogate how different forms or techniques can be used with each other to create tension, power and the sacred. While the themes explored in the work may seem portentous, there is humour here too, along with compassion, contrition and a desire to protect.
Gabhann is a former winner of the RDS Taylor Art Award and the Hennessy Craig Scholarship at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was described by Cristín Leach - writing in The Sunday Times - as 'one of the best Irish painters of his generation'.