JOHN SHEEHY
‘ART HELPS ME – IT'S CRUCIAL, NECESSARY; GETS ME THROUGH THE DAY, GETS ME THROUGH THE NIGHT. IT'S A FRIEND TO ME - A BIG TIME FRIEND. I DON'T OBSERVE OR RESEARCH, I'M NOT AWARE OF ANY INFLUENCES. IT JUST HAPPENS. COMES THROUGH MY HAND. I DON'T KNOW WHAT IT IS WHEN I'M DOING IT. THE COLOURS CHOOSE ME, MIX THEMSELVES. THE TITLE COMES AFTER – SOMETIMES LONG AFTER.'
Born in the south west of Ireland in 1949, John Sheehy immigrated to London in the 1950’s and has been living in the city ever since. From 1965 until 1989 he worked as a builder and roofer, but endured lengthy spells of unemployment, homelessness and mental health problems. He first began to paint in May 1999 at the suggestion of his psychotherapist. He began attending 240 Project in 2012, where he creates with a sense of urgency, immersed in the act of making and its therapeutic benefits: an urgent need to capture or perhaps, expel images, with a prodigious output of not only paintings, but printmaking, ceramics, sculpture and writing.
He has had four solo exhibitions, including one at the prestigious Studio Voltaire gallery in Clapham, as well as being included in group exhibitions exhibitions in Germany, Norway, Somerset House, The British Museum and The Royal Academy.
