Friends Fortnight 2026: Colin Davidson in Conversation

This event is part of our series of events for Friends Fortnight 2026, exclusively for Friends of the Gallery. 

Join us for an in-conversation event with contemporary artist Colin Davidson and Dr Brendan Rooney, Head Curator at the National Gallery of Ireland. The two will discuss Davidson's career as a portrait artist, having painted poet Michael Longley, actor and director Sir Kenneth Branagh and Queen Elizabeth II to name but a few. His work is featured in many key collections around Ireland and across the world, including the National Gallery of Ireland, the Ulster Museum in Belfast, the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Irish Arts Center in New York City among others.

Colin Davidson is a contemporary artist, living and working near Belfast, Northern Ireland. Since graduating in 1991 from the University of Ulster with a first-class honours degree, he has structured his practice in themes, and since 2010 his focus has been on painting grand scale portraits, which have won widespread recognition and many international awards.

Davidson’s exhibition of portrait paintings, entitled Silent Testimony, reveals the stories of eighteen people who are connected by their individual experiences of loss through the Troubles - a turbulent 30-year period in Northern Ireland from the late 1960s onwards. This critically acclaimed body of work was on show at the Ulster Museum Belfast during 2015, before embarking on a tour which included the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris, Dublin Castle and the United Nations NYC. His most recent exhibition, Stranger finished in the Royal Hibernian Academy in January 2026.
 

How to take part

• To experience the full festival you must become a Friend of the National Gallery of Ireland. Anyone can become a Friend in minutes, online, over the phone, or in person in the Gallery. Become a member of the Friends today!