James Hanley was born in Dublin in 1965. The renowned portraitist initially read art history and English as an undergraduate at University College Dublin (1984-1987), then trained in fine art at the National College of Art & Design (1987-1991) and Glasgow School of Art via the Erasmus Exchange programme in 1990.

Having developed an outstanding technical ability, Hanley has been praised for his portraits, the reputation of which has seen him become an official (political and corporate) portraitist of choice, both in his native Ireland and abroad. His elegant photorealistic style is, despite its necessary mimetic resemblance, far from being devoid of personal poetry.

His artistic involvement is not merely creative, but have also politically active, for example in 1996 when he accompanied the Irish Defence Forces to Bosnia and Croatia to research a painting commissioned to commemorate Ireland’s presidency of the European Union Monitoring Mission in former Yugoslavia.

Hanley, as an important figure of Irish art, is a full member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, was elected to Aosdána in 2008 and was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the National Gallery of Ireland. In 2006, he conceived a commemorative coin in honour of the Irish Office of Public Works’ 175th anniversary. Two years later, he was commissioned to design three Christmas stamps for An Post, the Irish postal service.