Guggi on growing up: ‘We would be lined up on a Sunday morning. We would have to stand to attention and he would walk along like an army inspection’

The artist on religion, his childhood and finding love with his new partner

Guggi inherited his love of motorcycles from his dad, Robbie. Photo: Niall MacMonagle

Niall MacMonagle

Beneath a gibbous moon, on a crisp, cold January night, the stars came out for Guggi’s Kerlin Gallery opening. Them, new paintings and sculptures, is now showing, and among the crowd that evening were Gavin Friday, Caroline and Andrea Corr, Richard Gorman, Leah Hewson, Eoin Colfer, Jim Jarmusch, James Hanley and Orla de Brí. And every artist’s favourite colour – red-dot red – was everywhere.

Them is Guggi’s most personal show to date and days after the opening buzz, Guggi, with his Italian partner Gabriella Janni by his side, sat down to talk to the Sunday Independent in their beautifully-renovated, mid-19th century home in Killiney.