Ian McAllister
Born in Newtownards, Northern Ireland in 1966, McAllister studied Fine Art at the University of Ulster. His first solo exhibition was held at Newtownards Arts Centre while still a student.
“My work is most often described as representational painting. I accept the description as I do not know of any other kind of painting; but I am not interested in realism per se. I seek to represent the appearance of an object simply because it is the only way to realise its singular nature. I am drawn to those subjects in which I perceive a deep poeticism, visually available, in what I regard as their “personality” in the circumstance” Ian McAllister
“My own enthusiasm is for surrealism, for what we see behind the shut eye. McAllister keeps both eyes open certainly but there is mystery there nonetheless.” George Melly
“I am interested in McAllister because he is that increasingly rare phenomenon, a painter who knows how to paint and does so with immaculate integrity. He uses his skills on sotto voce performances that will be for ever unheard in the echoing caverns of Tate Modern but which, like so many other painters whose still lives have over the past three centuries pleased their collectors with subtle insights into form, light and composition, depend on the private and discerning eye for the survival of the genre.” Brian Sewell
