Michael Feeney Callan
Encyclopedia
Michael Feeney Callan is a novelist, filmmaker and painter, also known for his biographical writing.
An award winner for his short fiction, he joined BBC television drama
as a story editor, and wrote screenplays for The Professionals
and for American television. He wrote the template Irish police drama series, The Burke Enigma, starring Donal McCann
, and Love Is, starring Gabriel Byrne
, and went on to direct a number of television programmes, among them the celebrated bio-documentary The Beach Boys Today. Callan has published several novels and has written biographies of Sean Connery
, Anthony Hopkins
and Richard Harris
. His most recent work is Robert Redford: The Biography (Knopf), a comprehensive, intimate account of the actor-director's life and work written with Redford's cooperation over a period spanning more than ten years.
Born, raised and educated in Dublin, Callan still resides in the city with his wife Ree and their two children, Corey and Paris. He frequently spends time at Châteauneuf de Grasse in the South of France, where he paints and sculpts.
’ New Irish Writing series in the 1970s.
Callan has continued to write poetry over the past thirty years and in 2003 published an anthology Fifty Fingers, which includes the very first published poem, Barbara.
Callan continues to work on a new collection of poetry, which will be published next autumn. Provisionally entitled The Magic Triangle, the book will contain poems written between 2003 and 2011.
), Jockey School and Target: The Bronze Heist (both BBC
), were accompanied by works of fiction and performing arts biographies.
Essay filmographies on Julie Christie
and Jayne Mansfield
were followed by authoritative biographies of the enigmatic Sean Connery
, long time friend Richard Harris
and most recently Anthony Hopkins
. The Connery book was referred to as "a necessity for Connery and Bond Fans" by the Los Angeles Times
and the novelist and critic Dermot Bolger
, reviewing Anthony Hopkins' biography referred to Callan as "one of Ireland's foremost biographers".
Callan's first fiction novel, Lovers and Dancers, set in Ireland in the famine years, was inspired by Anthony Trollope's early writing and was well regarded on publication.
Subsequently, in 2002, Callan Published Did You Miss Me?, a novel which explored many difficult female themes.
For fifteen years from the mid nineties, Callan travelled throughout the United States interviewing more than 300 sources for his latest work, Robert Redford: The Biography (Knopf, 2011). This landmark work was written with the cooperation of the subject who provided access to his diaries, scripts and personal records.
Callan has commenced work on the biography of a major music artist, to be announced shortly.
, which starred Ray McAnally
and Donal McCann
and went forward as RTE
's drama entry for the 1979 Prix Italia
. Subsequently he joined BBC television drama
in London, where he story-edited the detective series Shoestring (TV series). Simultaneously, at ITV
, he wrote for the action series The Professionals
.
In the 1980s, Callan collaborated with Frederick Forsyth
on two Public Broadcasting Service
-aired adaptations of Forsyth's stories Privilege and A Careful Man (Mobil Showcase).
Perhaps the most intriguing television project of this decade, however, was his unproduced Doctor Who
two-part episode entitled The Children of January which was delivered to the BBC
in 1985 but remained unfinished when the series was suspended under Jonathan Nathan-Turner's producer tenure.
On his website recently, Callan responded to an enquiry on this subject thus: "I wrote a two-parter called The Children of January. It was to be a season closer, not a series termination. But the BBC decided in mid-season that the show had run its course and, in the middle eighties, I think they were right. But I loved my episode, which was delivered late in 1985. I created a race of runaway proto-humanoids called the Z'ros, sort of 'human bees', of which I still have the fondest nightmares. The Children of January, incidentally, refers to renegade outcasts of a dawning 'parallel universe' civilisation that was abandoned".
This elusive story will finally see the light of day in an audio production featuring Colin Baker
and several of the original BBC cast, for Big Finish Productions
, the celebrated Dr Who archivists.
Callan has continued to write for television, including the popular ITV
series Cluedo and the RTE
drama Templewood.
Throughout February and March, 2011, Callan wrote and produced a major new TV series Sounds from the Cities which featured on Channel 4 in association with his interactive multi-media musical/arts project, BOBCOM (see www.bobcom.com). The series was presented by actor Mathew Horne and featured live performances from established musicians including K T Tunstall, Jon Fratelli, Joy Formidable and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals. The series quartered the UK and visited all four provinces, testing the cultural mood nationwide. BOBCOM is an ever-renewing online mechanism providing free incentives to new artists - initially musicians, but will shortly extend to artists working in all media.
was then named), alter film investment law and attract Hollywood-based co-production into Ireland.
Throughout the eighties, Callan worked with O'Sullivan, forging a bridgehead at the renamed Ardmore Studios which was bought in partnership with the NEA and MTM Hollywood in November 1986.
In the 1990s, Callan started directing.[2] His directorial debut was with the six-part series My Riviera, in which Roger Moore
, James Coburn
, Sylvia Kristel
, Charles Aznavour
and Joan Collins
reviewed cultural and personal favourite places along the Côte d'Azur, an area Callan has frequented since the 1980s. The series was screened on ITV and throughout the world.
For RTÉ, Callan wrote and directed The Beach Boys Today, a well-received road film documenting the final touring days of the Carl Wilson-led Beach Boys.
More work in the USA followed, including a documentary entitled Back to Enchantment about animators Gary Goldman
and Don Bluth
(An American Tail
, Anastasia
) which tied in with the Warner Bros release of Thumbelina
.
In 1994, Callan was approached to write, co-produce and co-direct a film of Perry Como's final concert for PBS. Como, by then in his 80th year, was unwell in the week leading to the filming and the performance itself was curtailed as a result, but Como expressed himself exhilarated by the experience and later commented that he had always wished to end his career in Ireland.
After a decade working on the Redford project, in 2005 Callan resumed directing with the film Luke Kelly: The Performer, which subsequently spent eight weeks at the top of the DVD sales chart in Ireland. According to Callan, the project was "a wonderful fusion, part biography, part musical. It covered so much of the ground I love, the stuff that inspires me. And Luke was an incredibly gifted man."
In December 2007 Callan joined the advisory board of the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival (http://www.lairishfilm.com), along with Jim Sheridan and other luminaries from the Irish film scene, a move which underlined his commitment to promoting Irish artistic endeavour worldwide. In July 2011, Michael directed the two-day "Magical History Tour" event in Liverpool, culminating with a 7 hour live session from the Cavern Club, streamed on BOBCOM and on the partner channel, YouTube. The event included a whimsical re-creation of The Beatles' 1967 magic bus tour and a re-creation of the day in July 1957 when John Lennon met Paul McCartney. Featuring were John Lennon's original Quarrymen band (who also played live at the Cavern), Pete Best (the Beatles' first drummer), Banned Sauce, Kristina Cox, students from the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts (LIPA) and two new winning bands from BOBCOM's incentive scheme: We Are Burke's Lounge from Limavady, Northern Ireland and Alamode from Essex, England. Currently, Callan is directing 'The Cleavers', a stepped narrative for www.bobcom.com online.
in the South of France in the eighties and titled his first exhibition, staged at Dublin's Blue Leaf Gallery in May 2002, A Workshop in France.
Subsequently his work ran on two parallel tracks. His figurative nudes featured in the Blue Leaf's Nude group showing in November 2002, and more detailed figurative work, taken from his heavily illustrated poetry notebooks, was the focus of the Fifty Fingers exhibition, which opened at the Pembroke Blue Leaf Gallery in August 2003. In tandem with this figurative work, Callan's experiments in abstract cubism have produced strikingly individual works peopled with statuesque Hellenic imagery. He also continues to work in bronze.
Callan's last exhibition, entitled Arcadia Suburbia, focussed on themes of childhood and adolescent iconography. He has recently commenced work on Francly, a photo-essay about the South of France, where he has travelled and worked for more than 25 years.
A new exhibition of drawings and paintings, featuring work assembled over the last seven years, will be held in Dublin later this year.
Recent interviews and press features include the Irish Independent and Faux Magazine.
Callan continues work on his major new project, entitled Bobcom, which he has been writing and developing over the past two years. Bobcom is a revolutionary new website designed to return control of music production, networking and power to the musician.
An award winner for his short fiction, he joined BBC television drama
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
as a story editor, and wrote screenplays for The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
and for American television. He wrote the template Irish police drama series, The Burke Enigma, starring Donal McCann
Donal McCann
Donal McCann was an Irish stage, film, and television actor best known for his roles in the works of Brian Friel and for his lead role in John Huston's last film, The Dead.-Early life:...
, and Love Is, starring Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel Byrne
Gabriel James Byrne is an Irish actor, film director, film producer, writer, cultural ambassador and audiobook narrator. His acting career began in the Focus Theatre before he joined Londo's Royal Court Theatre in 1979. Byrne's screen debut came in the Irish soap opera The Riordans and the...
, and went on to direct a number of television programmes, among them the celebrated bio-documentary The Beach Boys Today. Callan has published several novels and has written biographies of Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
, Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
and Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
. His most recent work is Robert Redford: The Biography (Knopf), a comprehensive, intimate account of the actor-director's life and work written with Redford's cooperation over a period spanning more than ten years.
Born, raised and educated in Dublin, Callan still resides in the city with his wife Ree and their two children, Corey and Paris. He frequently spends time at Châteauneuf de Grasse in the South of France, where he paints and sculpts.
Poetry
Callan's abiding wish, from childhood, was to contribute to internationalising Irish cultural experience and, in his words, "to writing some good, lasting poems". His first poems, often on romantic themes and deploying surreal language, were published within David MarcusDavid Marcus
David Marcus was an Irish Jewish editor and writer who was a lifelong advocate and editor of Irish fiction.- Life and times :...
’ New Irish Writing series in the 1970s.
Callan has continued to write poetry over the past thirty years and in 2003 published an anthology Fifty Fingers, which includes the very first published poem, Barbara.
Callan continues to work on a new collection of poetry, which will be published next autumn. Provisionally entitled The Magic Triangle, the book will contain poems written between 2003 and 2011.
Books
Following the early success of his short stories, winning the Hennessy Literary Award for Short Fiction for Baccy, Callan has enjoyed a diverse publishing career. Several British television adaptations, including Capital City (ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
), Jockey School and Target: The Bronze Heist (both BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
), were accompanied by works of fiction and performing arts biographies.
Essay filmographies on Julie Christie
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie is a British actress. Born in British India to English parents, at the age of six Christie moved to England, where she attended boarding school....
and Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
were followed by authoritative biographies of the enigmatic Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
, long time friend Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
and most recently Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...
. The Connery book was referred to as "a necessity for Connery and Bond Fans" by the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
and the novelist and critic Dermot Bolger
Dermot Bolger
Dermot Bolger is an Irish novelist, playwright and poet born in Finglas, a suburb of Dublin.His work is often concerned with the articulation of the experiences of working-class characters who, for various reasons, feel alienated from society. Bolger questions the relevance of traditional...
, reviewing Anthony Hopkins' biography referred to Callan as "one of Ireland's foremost biographers".
Callan's first fiction novel, Lovers and Dancers, set in Ireland in the famine years, was inspired by Anthony Trollope's early writing and was well regarded on publication.
Subsequently, in 2002, Callan Published Did You Miss Me?, a novel which explored many difficult female themes.
For fifteen years from the mid nineties, Callan travelled throughout the United States interviewing more than 300 sources for his latest work, Robert Redford: The Biography (Knopf, 2011). This landmark work was written with the cooperation of the subject who provided access to his diaries, scripts and personal records.
Callan has commenced work on the biography of a major music artist, to be announced shortly.
Writing for television
Callan's first major screenplay was the epic crime series The Burke Enigma, a six-hour film production for RTERTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
, which starred Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally
Ray McAnally was an Irish actor famous for his performances in films such as The Mission, My Left Foot, and A Very British Coup.-Background:...
and Donal McCann
Donal McCann
Donal McCann was an Irish stage, film, and television actor best known for his roles in the works of Brian Friel and for his lead role in John Huston's last film, The Dead.-Early life:...
and went forward as RTE
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
's drama entry for the 1979 Prix Italia
Prix Italia
The Prix Italia is an international Italian television, radio-broadcasting and Website award. It was established in 1948 by RAI - Radiotelevisione Italiana in Capri...
. Subsequently he joined BBC television drama
BBC television drama
BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...
in London, where he story-edited the detective series Shoestring (TV series). Simultaneously, at ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
, he wrote for the action series The Professionals
The Professionals (TV series)
The Professionals was a British crime-action television drama series produced by Avengers Mk1 Productions and London Weekend Television that aired on the ITV network from 1977 to 1983. In all, 57 episodes were produced, filmed between 1977 and 1981. It starred Martin Shaw, Lewis Collins and Gordon...
.
In the 1980s, Callan collaborated with Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
on two Public Broadcasting Service
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
-aired adaptations of Forsyth's stories Privilege and A Careful Man (Mobil Showcase).
Perhaps the most intriguing television project of this decade, however, was his unproduced Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
two-part episode entitled The Children of January which was delivered to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in 1985 but remained unfinished when the series was suspended under Jonathan Nathan-Turner's producer tenure.
On his website recently, Callan responded to an enquiry on this subject thus: "I wrote a two-parter called The Children of January. It was to be a season closer, not a series termination. But the BBC decided in mid-season that the show had run its course and, in the middle eighties, I think they were right. But I loved my episode, which was delivered late in 1985. I created a race of runaway proto-humanoids called the Z'ros, sort of 'human bees', of which I still have the fondest nightmares. The Children of January, incidentally, refers to renegade outcasts of a dawning 'parallel universe' civilisation that was abandoned".
This elusive story will finally see the light of day in an audio production featuring Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
and several of the original BBC cast, for Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
, the celebrated Dr Who archivists.
Callan has continued to write for television, including the popular ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
series Cluedo and the RTE
RTE
RTÉ is the abbreviation for Raidió Teilifís Éireann, the public broadcasting service of the Republic of Ireland.RTE may also refer to:* Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, 25th Prime Minister of Turkey...
drama Templewood.
Throughout February and March, 2011, Callan wrote and produced a major new TV series Sounds from the Cities which featured on Channel 4 in association with his interactive multi-media musical/arts project, BOBCOM (see www.bobcom.com). The series was presented by actor Mathew Horne and featured live performances from established musicians including K T Tunstall, Jon Fratelli, Joy Formidable and Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals. The series quartered the UK and visited all four provinces, testing the cultural mood nationwide. BOBCOM is an ever-renewing online mechanism providing free incentives to new artists - initially musicians, but will shortly extend to artists working in all media.
Film and directing
Michael Feeney Callan made a significant contribution to the regeneration of the film industry in Ireland during the 1980s. Joining Morgan O'Sullivan's pioneering production set-up, Tara Productions, Callan collaborated in a strategy to acquire the defunct National Film Studios (as Ardmore studiosArdmore Studios
Ardmore Studios is a film studio in Bray, County Wicklow, Ireland which was founded by Emmet Dalton and opened by the Minister for Industry and Commerce Seán Lemass on May 12, 1958....
was then named), alter film investment law and attract Hollywood-based co-production into Ireland.
Throughout the eighties, Callan worked with O'Sullivan, forging a bridgehead at the renamed Ardmore Studios which was bought in partnership with the NEA and MTM Hollywood in November 1986.
In the 1990s, Callan started directing.[2] His directorial debut was with the six-part series My Riviera, in which Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
, James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
, Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel
Sylvia Kristel is a Dutch actress, model and singer. Her most famous role is in the French film Emmanuelle.- Early life :...
, Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour
Charles Aznavour, OC is an Armenian-French singer, songwriter, actor, public activist and diplomat. Besides being one of France's most popular and enduring singers, he is also one of the best-known singers in the world...
and Joan Collins
Joan Collins
Joan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
reviewed cultural and personal favourite places along the Côte d'Azur, an area Callan has frequented since the 1980s. The series was screened on ITV and throughout the world.
For RTÉ, Callan wrote and directed The Beach Boys Today, a well-received road film documenting the final touring days of the Carl Wilson-led Beach Boys.
More work in the USA followed, including a documentary entitled Back to Enchantment about animators Gary Goldman
Gary Goldman
Gary Wayne Goldman is an American Film Producer, Director, Animator, Writer and voice actor, he is well known for working on films with Don Bluth like Anastasia, An American Tail and The Land Before Time...
and Don Bluth
Don Bluth
Donald Virgil "Don" Bluth is an American animator and independent studio owner. He is best known for his departure from The Walt Disney Company in 1979 and his subsequent directing of animated films such as The Secret of NIMH , An American Tail ,The Land Before Time , and All Dogs Go to Heaven ,...
(An American Tail
An American Tail
An American Tail is a 1986 American animated adventure film directed by Don Bluth and produced by Sullivan Bluth Studios and Amblin Entertainment. The film tells the story of Fievel Mouskewitz and his family as they immigrate from Russia to America for freedom. However, Fievel gets lost and must...
, Anastasia
Anastasia
Anastasia is a personal name and the female form of the Greek male name Anastasius/Anastasios meaning "resurrection." The name, and its male counterpart, were often given to Greek children born around December 2 or around Easter during the early days of Christianity. It is the name of several...
) which tied in with the Warner Bros release of Thumbelina
Thumbelina
"Thumbelina" is a literary fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen first published by C. A. Reitzel on 16 December 1835 in Copenhagen, Denmark with "The Naughty Boy" and "The Traveling Companion" in the second installment of Fairy Tales Told for Children. "Thumbelina" is about a tiny girl and...
.
In 1994, Callan was approached to write, co-produce and co-direct a film of Perry Como's final concert for PBS. Como, by then in his 80th year, was unwell in the week leading to the filming and the performance itself was curtailed as a result, but Como expressed himself exhilarated by the experience and later commented that he had always wished to end his career in Ireland.
After a decade working on the Redford project, in 2005 Callan resumed directing with the film Luke Kelly: The Performer, which subsequently spent eight weeks at the top of the DVD sales chart in Ireland. According to Callan, the project was "a wonderful fusion, part biography, part musical. It covered so much of the ground I love, the stuff that inspires me. And Luke was an incredibly gifted man."
In December 2007 Callan joined the advisory board of the Los Angeles Irish Film Festival (http://www.lairishfilm.com), along with Jim Sheridan and other luminaries from the Irish film scene, a move which underlined his commitment to promoting Irish artistic endeavour worldwide. In July 2011, Michael directed the two-day "Magical History Tour" event in Liverpool, culminating with a 7 hour live session from the Cavern Club, streamed on BOBCOM and on the partner channel, YouTube. The event included a whimsical re-creation of The Beatles' 1967 magic bus tour and a re-creation of the day in July 1957 when John Lennon met Paul McCartney. Featuring were John Lennon's original Quarrymen band (who also played live at the Cavern), Pete Best (the Beatles' first drummer), Banned Sauce, Kristina Cox, students from the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts (LIPA) and two new winning bands from BOBCOM's incentive scheme: We Are Burke's Lounge from Limavady, Northern Ireland and Alamode from Essex, England. Currently, Callan is directing 'The Cleavers', a stepped narrative for www.bobcom.com online.
Painting
Irish Times art critic Aidan Dunne observed that "Callan's work is like a love affair with French painting", and this seems comprehensively accurate, since Callan began painting in ValbonneValbonne
Valbonne Sophia Antipolis is a commune near Nice in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in south-eastern France...
in the South of France in the eighties and titled his first exhibition, staged at Dublin's Blue Leaf Gallery in May 2002, A Workshop in France.
Subsequently his work ran on two parallel tracks. His figurative nudes featured in the Blue Leaf's Nude group showing in November 2002, and more detailed figurative work, taken from his heavily illustrated poetry notebooks, was the focus of the Fifty Fingers exhibition, which opened at the Pembroke Blue Leaf Gallery in August 2003. In tandem with this figurative work, Callan's experiments in abstract cubism have produced strikingly individual works peopled with statuesque Hellenic imagery. He also continues to work in bronze.
Callan's last exhibition, entitled Arcadia Suburbia, focussed on themes of childhood and adolescent iconography. He has recently commenced work on Francly, a photo-essay about the South of France, where he has travelled and worked for more than 25 years.
A new exhibition of drawings and paintings, featuring work assembled over the last seven years, will be held in Dublin later this year.
Other media work
He is a regular contributor to the arts programme, Arena, on RTE Radio 1.Recent interviews and press features include the Irish Independent and Faux Magazine.
Callan continues work on his major new project, entitled Bobcom, which he has been writing and developing over the past two years. Bobcom is a revolutionary new website designed to return control of music production, networking and power to the musician.