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Aly Harte

Belfast artist Aly Harte creates expressive oil paintings inspired by memory, landscape and emotional connection to place. Layered paint, instinctive mark making and restrained palettes explore the quiet space between grief, hope and everyday beauty. Visit alyharte.com for my full portfolio, studio stories and latest work.

Aly Harte

About

Statement

My father died from a heart defect the week before my 8th birthday. I retreated into the dreamy world of my own head, a place of fantasy, romance and marshmallow softness, an escape from the loneliness and sadness of his absence. I lived wedged between grief and joy; as an artist I was forged in that liminal space. I am constantly unravelling the place that grief has in our lives. Exploring the landscape between deep sadness and sporadic laughter. Greeting grief like a person invited to my practice, I ask the viewer to connect to their own experiences of loss through my paintings. Calling on both memory and childlike play, my work is bold and expressive, instinctive marks and strong brushstrokes that invite the viewer to partake in the freedom and lightness that abstraction allows. Loss can and does coexist with joy in everyday moments– the ephemeral beauty of the garden outside my door, feeling the closeness of my father on the small holding where I grew up, the fleeting wild days of childhood of my three boys. I seek to portray the lightness that life can have amidst the dark and heavy. My practice explores the intersection of performance, memory, and materiality. Each painting emerges as a trace of a physical act—gestural, instinctive mark-making using oil paint and industrial brushes on unstretched canvas. These works are remnants of movement, where the written word and brushwork function in tandem. Titles such as Swimming Pool, It Took Only a Moment to Love You, and Candy Floss Happiness offer familiar entry points. They serve as emotional cues—personal, yet universally resonant—drawing the viewer into the performance behind the surface. A pivotal work in my practice, Daddy’s Bread, was a performance and installation using 796 bread bags—one for every week since 1991—collected from my late father’s favourite loaf. This piece became a quiet archive of grief, transforming a humble domestic material into a monument of loss, memory, and time. Since my MFA, I have continued to explore the distortion of the familiar—be it through fragmented body forms or skewed everyday objects. This interest now extends into painting, where rural Irish landscapes are reframed through surreal palettes—purple skies, exaggerated forms—challenging the viewer’s expectations and emotional readings. At the core of my work is a desire to interrupt the familiar and provoke new ways of seeing. I invite viewers into spaces where memory, personal history, and the absurd converge—spaces that ask not to be solved, but to be felt.

Education

Master’s Degree in Fine Art (Distinction)
BA (Hons) Fine Art (First Class)

Exhibitions

Solo

2026Loose landscapes and still life, La Bottega, Belfast, United Kingdom
2025At long last, City Quay 3, Belfast Docks, Belfast, United Kingdom
2025HER, Cameo Boutique (pop-up), United Kingdom
2025Motherhood and holidays, Private Collectors Gallery, Bangor, United Kingdom
2024All there is, The Diamond Lab, New Bond Street, London, United Kingdom
2023Donegal scenes and abstract, Strand Homes, Belfast, United Kingdom
2023Soft textures and paint, Harrison, Belfast, United Kingdom
2023Feels like home, At Our Gallery, Main Street, Holywood, United Kingdom
2023Pooches — 30 charcoal sketches, Aly’s gallery, High Street, Holywood, United Kingdom
2022Irish landscapes, The Yard Gallery (window display), Holywood, United Kingdom
2022Recent works, Staging NI, United Kingdom
2021Beach and figures, Seahorse Gallery, Belfast, United Kingdom
2020Irish landscapes on paper, Virtual exhibition
2020Everyday women — touring exhibition, Market Place Arts Centre (January); Ards Arts Centre (March), Armagh / Newtownards, United Kingdom
2019Everyday women — touring exhibition, Belfast City Hall, Belfast, United Kingdom
2019Gathering, Haptic Gallery, Newtownards, United Kingdom
2019Hydrangea and dancers, Helen’s Bay open event, Helen’s Bay, United Kingdom
2018Everyday women — touring exhibition, Stormont Parliament Buildings, Belfast, United Kingdom
201871, Lisburn Road Interiors Gallery, Belfast, United Kingdom
2018Flowers and dancers, Canvas Gallery, Stranmillis, Belfast, United Kingdom
2018Peonies and others, Lean In Women event, Malone, Belfast, United Kingdom
2017Irish seascapes, Hillsborough Community Centre, Hillsborough, United Kingdom
2013You’re here, John Hewitt Arts Centre, Belfast, United Kingdom

Group

2026Mementos Amoris — I wear your sweater (shortlisted), Lido Stores, Margate, United Kingdom
2026Anna Cheyne Visual Art Award (shortlisted), Island Arts Centre, United Kingdom
20256, New and Abstract, Berlin, Germany
2025Drinks and cityscapes, Beaufort Interiors, London, United Kingdom
2024Oil paintings, Lisnagarvey Hockey Clubhouse, United Kingdom
2022Donegal scenes, Art and Home, Holywood, United Kingdom
2018American / Irish, Stella and Fly, New York, United States
2018ECLECTIC XXV, Hambly & Hambly, Enniskillen, United Kingdom
2017Christmas 200, Black Canvas Gallery, United Kingdom
2017Drinks and cityscapes, Beaufort Interiors, Moira, United Kingdom
2017Pineapple and champagne, Beaufort Interiors, Moira, United Kingdom
2016Flowers, Bistro Este, Ballyhackamore, Belfast, United Kingdom
2006Body body — Master of Fine Art final show
2005Singing in my car — video installation, Belfast Exposed, Belfast, United Kingdom
2004Daddy’s bread — Fine Art degree show

Recognition

Awards, prizes & residencies

2027Forthcoming artist residency — May 2027; mentorship with Eamon Colman, Hambly & Hambly
2026Artist residency — Estudio Corazon, New Mexico (January–February), Ghost Ranch
2025Artist residency — Arraiolos, Portugal (October–November), Cortex Frontal
2025Artist in residence — September, Cricket Ireland, Stormont and Malahide grounds
2024Artist in residence — July and September, Cricket Ireland, Stormont and Malahide grounds
2023Artist in residence — Dublin (March–May), Rathmichael National School

12 pieces available.

Aly Harte