Emma Roche | Mid-Day Feed | 2022 | Knitted acrylic paint on wooden panels

Emma Roche | Essential Worker | 2022 | Acrylic paint on rug canvas

For Culture night 2023 the Arts Council will once again proudly showcase a selection of works recently added to its extensive Visual Art Collection.

To celebrate the evening we are sharing some insight on each of the artist and artworks which will be on display:

‘The knitted paint paintings and tapestries are made by making long lines of paint, extruded through a syringe; once the paint has dried it is used it as if it is wool or thread. Autobiographical themes such as labour, production, waged and unwaged work, everyday events, pregnancy and motherhood are present.

Obsessed with painting’s loaded and one sided history these paintings try to physically question ideas around gesture and they refuse the mediation of the brush. Customary ‘feminine’ crafts are central to how the work is made as well as curiosities into paint’s haptic qualities and the potential of acrylic and oil paint. The knitted paint paintings and tapestries are made by making long lines of paint, extruded through a syringe; once the paint has dried it is used it as if it is wool or thread. Autobiographical themes such as labour, production, waged and unwaged work, everyday events, pregnancy and motherhood are present. These ideas are further highlighted through the paintings’ form and the allegory of its own labour’

Emma Roche is the 2021 recipient of the Emergence Award, Wexford Arts Centre; Visual Arts, Arts Council Bursary Award, 2021 and 2020, Creative Ireland Bursary Award, 2020 and was shortlisted for the Zurich Portrait Prize, National Gallery, Dublin, 2021.

Recent exhibitions include Spiders and Cheerleaders, The Complex, Dublin, 2021; Ochre, two-person show, Wexford Arts Centre, 2021, Forward Slash, the LAB Gallery Dublin, 2018. Selected group shows include Generation 22, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, 2022, Small Night Zine, Catalyst Arts, Belfast and Garter Lane, Waterford, 2022, VISUAL Carlow, 2020 and 2019, Turps Gallery, London, 2018 and Green On Red Gallery, Dublin, 2018

Her work is included in private and public collections including the OPW, Dublin.

The Arts Council Collection was established in 1962 and now comprises almost 1,350 works of modern and contemporary Irish art.

This year we are delighted to once again welcome audiences to the Arts Council buildings on Merrion Square to engage with some our most recent acquisitions.

Works by many of Ireland’s leading artists will be shown on the night including pieces by: Elizabeth Cope, Miriam De Búrca, Mollie Douthit, Justin Fitzpatrick, Marie Holohan, Helen Hughes, Catriona Leahy, Jialin Long, Kevin Mooney, Doireann Ní Ghrioghair, Emma Roche, Mark Swords, Amna Walayat and Orla Whelan.

As well as this glimpse into the Arts Council Collection for Culture Night, artworks can be seen all year round throughout the country as part of exhibitions and long term loans in public buildings such as hospitals, universities and schools.

Explore the Collection and more on our website here.