Mick Rooney RA

Born in 1944 and studied at Sutton and Wimbledon Colleges of Art, the Royal College of Art and The British School in Rome. He has taught at several art colleges in the UK and has been Head of Painting at the Royal Academy Schools. He was elected Royal Academician in 1991.

Mick Rooney’s work strives to continue a narrative, poetic, humanistic tradition in painting. Mankind is central to his work; sometimes in stories from his own personal history, his travels and small events of the everyday. His paintings explore the inner mythologies, neurosis, dreams and secrets that are so much a part of today’s social landscape.

‘His [Rooney’s] engagement is to humanity at large; his allegiance is to art at large. His delight is in what paint can do and how it can deliver, again and again in so many different ways, what the imagination will conceive.’
Professor Norbert Lynton

He has had many solo and joint exhibitions in the UK and Europe and the USA. His work is in many public collections throughout the world including: ‘The Financial Times’, A J Kearney, London Transport, De Beers, Foundation Ralli (Punta del Este, Uruguay), the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Jerwood Foundation. Also, he has work in private collections including: Sir Paul McCartney, Michael Mann, Paul Theroux, HM Queen Elizabeth II, Royal College of Art and Barings Bank.