Paul Kerr counts himself fortunate to have been born into the last generation of children for whom "play" was an activity, and not just the prefix to "station". Boxing gloves, toy guns and vivid imagination were his companions as a child, which led him, in due course, to a large, beautifully illustrated book of fairytales.

Paul recounts sitting at home for hours pouring over the pages and absorbing the strange little characters and the worlds they inhabited, which, according to the artist, were sometimes as real to him as his own family.
Paul was born in 1965 in Dungannon in the north of Ireland. His love for painting and drawing began in his early teens. By the time he was 16, it was to be an all-consuming passion. He was accepted for Art College in 1983, however he turned down the opportunity, as his life took a different course. It was more than ten years before he started painting again. He moved to Dublin in 1996, determined to devote his time to art, and has been painting professionally since then.

Paul has exhibited throughout Ireland as well as taking part in shows in London, New York, Florence, Milan, Sydney, and Beijing. Paul's work is in Irish and International collections including the Irish Government and the Office of Public Works.

"In our minds, as in nature, there is light and dark. The brightest day has the darkest shadows, and on the blackest night, a pin prick of light stands out. It is to this space between the two, in no-man's land, that we all return, in our most private moments. I have planted my feet in this space between dreams and reality, to try to capture the human soul stripped of modernity."


Source:
Website of Duke Street Gallery, 2020