Conor McFeely was born in Derry N.Ireland, where he now lives and works. He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally. His exhibitions include “Disclaimer”, Orchard Gallery Derry 1997, (solo). “Ink Mathematics”, The Mappin Gallery, Sheffield (solo). “Headfirst”, OBG Gallery Belfast 2003, (solo).The British Art Show 5, Hayward Gallery London, touring Edinburgh, Southampton, Cardiff and Birmingham 2000-200. “Small Steps, The Elipse Gallery,Washington DC, 2001. “Something Else”, Contemporary Art from Ireland, touring Turku, Helsinki, Ouulu, Joensuu Finland, 2003. “Hidden Dips” MCAC Portadown 2005 (solo). “Dogs Have No Religion” Czech Museum of Fine Art Prague, 2006. He is a recipient of The Curated Visual Arts Award 2007 (curated by Mike Nelson) resulting in two major solo shows of new work called “The Case of the Midwife Toad (the unrepeatable experiment)” in The Douglas Hyde Gallery Dublin 2007 and at Void, Derry 2008, and “The Testing Rooms/Smashing Forms” a site specific audio and video installation at The Maze Prison 2008. In May 2010 he had a major one person exhibition, Inside His Master’s Voice, at The Ormeau Baths gallery Belfast. In 2012 he was artist in residence at the Nordic Kunstamarren in Dale Norway/. In 2013 he has participated in CologneOFF Digital Arts Festival, and showed three iterations of The Weatherman Projects at Franklin University Lugano Switzerland, Fort Dunree, Donegal and The Golden Thread Gallery Belfast. In 2015 The Prisoners Cinema was shown at The Corner College Gallery Zurich. His Pioneers project has been shown at CCA Derry and QSS Gallery Belfast in 2017.
Conor McFeely’s works have an emphasis on the manipulation of space and the idiosyncratic use of materials and media. The contexts for these works have been varied and include references to literature, cinema, art history and social contexts amongst others. He has been referred to by the Guardian newspaper as a twenty-first century electro-alchemist. His work which has often been informed by cult literature, has also been described as jump cut rather than linear, and likened to a diatribe, more from the lips of Mark E Smith than William Burroughs, a sort of post-punk diorama.
Beyond the immediate contextual references of a given project his work is as much about the making of art and its possibilities as it is about anything else. The various forms that might find their way into a work, be they lumpen clods of denso tape on concrete, slices of cake and foam chips, audio textures or the glow of a striplight, and other stuff, all have their own place within the larger equation and are teased out on the basis of an attraction that operates at a more intuitive level. Of equal importance to any intellectual analysis of layered content is the direct and immediate visceral response to blunt and obscure phenomenon, and their ability to slow up or thwart a verbally articulated response
