James McKenna, a prominent figure in the visual arts and in literary circles from the 1960s until his death in 2000. Born in Dublin in 1933, McKenna studied at the National College of Art and Design. He was a founding member of both the Independent Artists Group and the Sculptors’ Society of Ireland and exhibited with the Irish Exhibitions of Living Art. He was awarded the Macaulay Fellowship for Sculpture in 1960 and became a member of Aosdána in 1983.
He exhibited widely and his work was included in many international sculpture shows in the 1980s and ’90s, a retrospective of his work took place at the Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co Kildare, in 2002, and its principal gallery is named after him – the McKenna Gallery. He is well known for several of his public and private commissions including his large limestone monument Resurgence at the University of Limerick; Female Figure and Tree, 1979, at the Central Bank in Sandyford, Co Dublin, and the Gerard Manley Hopkins monument in Monasterevin, Co Kildare. He was also a noted playwright of The Scatterin’, At Bantry, Citizens’ Tree, The Battering Ram , People without Fame and other works, along with a volume of poems.

Website: http://www.gerardmanleyhopkins.org/sculptor/finest_stone_sculptor.html