James Hanley was born in Dublin in 1965 and is a graduate of University College Dublin and the National College of Art and Design. He has exhibited widely in Ireland and abroad, most recently in survey shows of Irish Art When Time Began to Rant and Rage which toured America and England, and An Artists’ Century.

He was elected an Associate Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 2000 and a full Member in 2001. He was Secretary of the Academy from 2001 to 2008 has been a member of the Cultural Relation Committee now at the Department of Arts, Tourism and Sport. His work is in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Ireland, IMMA, The Arts Council, AIB and the European Parliament. He is also an established portrait painter.