Art Review:

John Behan: Man with Fish (Me and the Mudder-in Law)

John Behan’s current exhibition of bronze sculpture and monoprint at The Lavit in Cork, continues a long-standing union between artist and gallery that stretches back exactly forty years.

‘Man with Fish (Me and the Mudder-in Law)’, is both the title of the show and the title of arguably the strongest piece in the exhibition. The figure pays homage to local fishmonger Pat O’Connell — he who made the Queen of England laugh out loud while waving a fish at her during a visit to the English Market in 2011. The sculpture, pictured, mixes beautifully, lattice and lozenge patterns, as ‘Pat’ manhandles a huge fish in a mixture of deference and irreverence toward the unseen monarch.