This article is from page 19 of the 2011-03-15 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 19 JPG
A CLARE artists is on the verge of getting his first major international break through a major solo exhibition which will open in Australia later this month.
East Clare artist Thomas Delohery has spent much of the last 15 years painting about the horrors of the holocaust and the millions who perished in the Nazi concentration camps.
This latest exhibition, which is entitled “Shipwrecked in the Death Camps of Europe”, will be officially opened by renowned artist Victor Majzner on Tuesday, March 29, at the TACIT Contemporary Art Gallery in Melbourne.
Thomas has more then 40 solo exhibitions to his name in Ireland, England, Germany and Canada but this is his first time making it to Australia.
Thomas’ obsession with the Holocaust began in the mid-’90s when he first visited Camp II at Auschwitz-Birkenau. That day he became a pilgrim, visiting ever concentration camp in Europe over and over again, searching for something, drowning in the horror and the beauty.
“I was in the Flossenbürg Camp one autumn with two Germans – one whose father supplied meat to the camps and the other whose father was a high ranking officer in the SS,” he said.
“They walked with me through the camp. I remember looking at this horrific watch tower one minute and I’d turn away and see all of these beautiful blues and yellows. Bavaria at that time of the year, when the trees start to fade, is so beautiful, so full of colours.
“But one of my German friends started to get annoyed with me, he couldn’t understand how I could see the beauty in such an awful place. He was confused by it or maybe even perturbed,” he says.
“It was amazing to be in the camp with these guys, people whose family has such a real connection to it all. I’m always trying to make a connection to it.
“Besides my wife, whose grandmother was through the camps and thankfully managed to survive, I have no real connect to them.”
For information or to view a sample of Thomas’ work visit www.thomasdelohery.com