Community update with Alex Westfall In 2014 we met Alex as a student during our summer program Art on the Farm. Two years later she returned to participate in our photography residency How to Flatten a Mountain. In the years since, she has completed her undergraduate studies, earning a BA in Modern Culture and Media […]
Community update with Mathilde Ganancia We first met Mathilde Ganancia in 2014 as one of five artists for our autumn residency that year. Since then, Mathilde has returned several times for both shorter residencies and to teach during our summer art program Art on the Farm. It is a genuine pleasure anytime she returns, most […]
Community update with Maria Hinds Maria Hinds is one of our dearest friends. She was instrumental in the early development of the design language for Cow House and has provided almost all of our print and web design since the beginning. She was also one of our first residency artists back in 2008, and her […]
Community update with Sarah Pannell Sarah Pannell was a participant in our 2018 residency How to Flatten a Mountain. She is an Australian visual artist whose work concerns culture, landscape, tradition, and community. Sarah received a BA in International Studies from Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia in 2009 and a BA in Photography, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia […]
Community update with Sarah Bastacky Sarah Bastacky was a student during our summer program back in 2014. She graduated this spring from Bard College with a BA in Studio Arts and is currently based in New York’s Hudson Valley. Sarah’s projects and performances invite puppets, paintings, and whatever else necessary into the process of building a […]
Community update with Kate Strain
Kate Strain is the Artistic Director of Grazer Kunstverein. Based between Graz, Austria and Dublin, her ongoing curatorial projects include Department of Ultimology, a new department established with Fiona Hallinanin in 2016 at Trinity College Dublin and RGKSKSRG, the paired curatorial practice of Rachael Gilbourne and Kate Strain.
We were fortunate to work with Kate on two projects. The first, I like to eat with my hands, took place in 2015 under the collaborative practice RGKSKSRG. The second, The Centre For Dying On Stage #3, took place in 2016 with the support of The Arts Council‘s Curator in Residence scheme. Kate generously took some time out of her hectic schedule to answer a few of our questions.
Community update with Woosung Lee
Woosung Lee participated in our residency program in the autumn of 2014. Based in Seoul, Korea, his painting and drawing practice draw upon memory, nostalgia and humor to create whimsical tapestries that can exist both within a gallery setting or unexpected urban settings. In 2017 he provided a wonderful illustration for a limited edition run of mugs to fund the scholarship program for Art on the Farm, our summer art program.
In 2009 Woosung received his BFA in painting from Hongik University, Seoul, Korea and in 2012, his MFA from Korea National University of Arts, Seoul, Korea. Woosung has exhibited his work widely both in Korea and abroad and has taken some time away from his active studio practice to answer a few of our questions.
Community update with Ruth Connolly
Ruth Connolly is a photographer living and working in Dublin. She holds a BA in Fine Art Printmaking from Limerick School of Art and Design, and an MA in Photography from Central Saint Martins, London. Her first book, If you lived here, you’d be home by now was published in 2017 by The Velvet Cell.
Her personal work primarily explores the balance and tension between people and place. Commercially, she works with design studios, advertising agencies and businesses, helping to create a tone and feel for a brand through photography. Ruth is a photography lecturer at Dublin Institute of Design.
Ruth participated in our residency How to Flatten a Mountain in 2017 when she made the fantastic body of work Each evening we see the sun set which she made into an exquisite handmade book for the exhibition at Rathfarnham Castle. This work was then published by PhotoIreland Foundation as part of their TLP Editions series. Ruth has kindly taken some time to answer our questions.
Community update with Emma McClurg
Emma McClurg was one of our very first summer program students back in 2008 and returned to Art on the Farm again in 2010. We have such fond memories of those early years at Cow House and were probably learning as much if not more than our students during those first few summers.
In 2015, Emma graduated with a BFA in Visual Communication Design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is now a Senior Art Director at Ogilvy in Chicago, a position she earned after a freelancing gig during her senior year of college. She has kindly taken some time out of her busy schedule to answer a few of our questions.
Community update with Marissa Alper
Marissa was a student during our summer programme Art on the Farm in 2013 and is currently located in Richmond, Virginia where she is pursuing a BFA in Photography and Painting at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Marissa’s work explores her experience bridging the gap between adolescence and adulthood. While exploring this, she touches on different aspects of her personal life and her relationships with those around her.
Recently, Marissa’s work was featured in Lomo Women among many other online and print publications. We’re incredibly happy to see Marissa getting some recognition for her fantastic work and were delighted when she agreed to take a bit of time to answer a few of our questions.
Community update with Zsofia Schweger
Zsofia was one of our visiting artists for Art on the Farm in 2011 and taught painting alongside Rosie for the entire summer. She studied at Wellesley College before moving to London in 2013 where she attended the Slade School of Fine Art, graduating with an MA in 2015.
Zsofia was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2016 and has been supported by several generous prizes. These include the Jealous Prize, Griffin Art Prize, the Alice C. Cole Award, and the ‘One To Watch’ Award. Her first solo exhibition was held in 2016 at Griffin Gallery.
Zsofia was an exceptionally hard worker and woke up early every morning to paint before her teaching duties began. We had no doubts that she would do well and were thrilled to hear of her success. We’re grateful Zsofia has generously taken some time to answer a few of our questions.
Community update with Paul Gaffney
Paul Gaffney is one of four associate artists at Cow House Studios and participated in his first residency with us back in 2014. As an associate artist, Paul is a regular visitor to the farm and teaches during our summer program Art on the Farm. For the past number of years, he has been investigating different ways of experiencing and representing landscape. His research is focused on developing a meditative approach to landscape photography and explores how the act of image making can enable and disrupt a sense of connection with one’s surroundings.
Paul was recently selected for the Arts Council’s ‘Next Generation Bursary Award’ 2016-17. His books have been nominated for the Photobook Award at the International Photobook Festival Kassel (2013 & 2016), shortlisted for the European Publishers Award for Photography, and selected for several ‘Best Photobooks of The Year’ lists. Gaffney’s work has also been presented as solo exhibitions at the Centre national de l’audiovisuel (Luxembourg), Flowers Gallery (London), Gallery of Photography (Dublin), Belfast Exposed Gallery, Ffotogallery (Cardiff), Oliver Sears Gallery (Dublin) and in group shows and festivals in the US, UK, South Africa, Ireland, Italy, France and China. His images have been published internationally in print and online periodicals including American Suburb X, Harvard Design Review, Creative Review, The New Yorker, European Photography, DU Magazine, Katalog, PaperJam, Source, Photomonitor and Landscape Stories.
Paul recently took time out of his busy schedule to answer a few of our questions. Click through to read his answers.
Community update with SV Randall SV Randall was one of five artists invited to participate in our 2016 autumn artist residency, The Centre for Dying on Stage. He is an interdisciplinary artist working with sculpture, photography and installation to examine the relationship between consumer, commodity, and transformation. His artist statement asserts that “Within a culture of feverish consumption and […]
Community update with Haden Nicholl
Haden is one of our dearest friends. His painting, proclaiming “helping you to help you help you”, is among the first things our guests see when they arrive at Cow House. It has become something of a slogan for the studios. Rosie and Frank met Haden back in graduate school and have stayed close ever since. He was one of our first residency artists and came back two years in a row to teach during Art on the Farm where his sense of humour, intelligence and honesty won him favour with our students. Haden lives in his native Colorado and has been working on a long-term project to develop a home, studio and residency program remotely located in the Rocky Mountains.
Community update with Abigail Taubman
Abigail first attended Art on the Farm in 2010 and returned for two more summers before graduating from high school and heading off to Pitzer College in Claremont, California. She returned as an intern for the summer of 2014 and again last year for How to Flatten a Mountain, our new residency in collaboration with PhotoIreland. We have had the privilege of watching Abigail grow as an artist and a person over the past seven years. Her return visits and our continuing friendship epitomise what we have tried to build here at Cow House Studios, a community of individuals who share our passion for the arts, our beautiful Irish countryside and the close relationships that emerge from time shared on the farm.
Community update with Colin Matthes
Colin Matthes was one of four residency artists during our 2012 autumn residency. His practice includes painting, drawing, installation, zine and graphic production, and public art projects. Matthes has exhibited internationally in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Antwerp, Dublin, Houston, Seville, Ljubljana, Melbourne, and Berlin.
In addition to his residency at Cow House, he has participated in numerous other residencies including Hotel Pupik (Austria) and Werkkamp (Belgium). He won the Mary L Nohl Fellowship for Individual Artists in 2102 (Established) and 2007 (Emerging). In addition, Matthes works collectively with Justseeds, a network of twenty-six artists living in the United States, Canada, and Mexico that runs a print collective, contributes graphics to social movements, and co-publishes books.
Colin has been extremely generous with is time, taking care in thoughtfully answering our questions. It has been our privilege to catch up and read about all that has happened since his time with us in Ireland four years ago.
Community update with Manya Fox
Manya is a photographer living in Los Angeles, California and currently works as Visitor Services Director at Hollyhock House, a historic home built by Frank Loyd Wright in 1922. She was a visiting artist for Art on the Farm in 2010 where she taught photography in the darkroom and made a wonderful new body of work. Manya received her Bachelors Degree from Bard College in 2008 and her MFA from UCLA School of Art in 2008.
Community update with Margot Yale
Margot attended our summer programme Art on the Farm in 2012. She is now in her final year at Princeton University studying art history. On a recent trip to Ireland, researching for her senior thesis, Margot took time out to visit us during our final session of 2016. She spoke with the students about her current research, her experiences at Princeton and sat in on our final critique. Margot generously agreed to answer a few of our questions to reflect upon how her experiences at Cow House Studios continue to shape her interests and professional pursuits.
Community update with Rachel MacFarlane
It has been just over a year since we last caught up with anyone from our fantastic community of artists. Rachel MacFarlane was a visiting artist for our programme Art on the Farm during the summer of 2012. She is an immensely talented painter, generous spirit and dedicated teacher. She will be completing her MFA in Painting from Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts this spring and holds a BFA in Drawing and Painting from Ontario College of Art and Design [2008]. Rachel is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto, ON and her work has featured in several group and solo exhibitions in both North America and Europe.
You can read our conversation here…
Community update with William Rueck.
Billy participated in our 2009 Artist Residency. He is an artist and craftsman trained in traditional wood and metalworking. In 2005 he received a BFA in Furniture Design from the Rhode Island School of Design, and his MFA in Applied Craft and Design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art and Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2012. Most recently he participated in the roaming residency Cabin Time, and works for a design-build firm in Portland, Oregon called Orange Design. Billy took some time out to answer a few of our questions, and you can read them here.
Image credits Carson Davis Brown