AN art exhibition that initially opened in New York in 2024 featuring well-known faces from Bantry will be reprised at Cnoc Buí in June.

The artist John Ratajkowski – together with his wife Kathy and daughter Emily – have been returning to the family’s second home in Bantry for decades.

John set himself the not inconsiderable task of interviewing everybody he knows and set about recording video while talking to them.

‘The list keeps growing,’ John deadpanned, ahead of the 7pm opening of his show About Face at Cnoc Buí on Thursday June 25th.

‘I started doing portraits from the videos and, so far, I have lots of portraits from a list that is now upwards of 70,’ he said.

A friend of a friend mentioned his work to the New York gallery owner. John sent the gallery 30 images and 15 were selected for a special exhibition at the Dacia Gallery in New York.

Finding a venue large enough to showcase the 70 drawings as part of the About Face collection ​was no easy task. But the addition of Cnoc Buí as a community art space is, according to John, a blessing for local, national and internationally acclaimed artists who orbit West Cork.

For 40 years, John had taught art in North County, San Diego. Ten years in, when he took time off to work for an upcoming exhibition, he met a guy who offered him a house in Bantry.

When the family arrived in Bantry, John and his daughter joined the local basketball team. It was a great ‘in’ and soon they had a wide and eclectic circle of friends, many of whom will be attending the exhibition opening.

John said it is with a genuine sense of joy that they look forward to coming here every summer.