We are thrilled to have our residency How to Flatten a Mountain featured on lenscratch.com. The piece was written by 2017 participant Val Patterson, the Social Media Editor for LENSCRATCH and a Los Angeles artist specializing in fine art portraiture, travel and landscape photography. In the post, Val recounts here experience here on the farm participating in workshops, […]
We are now more than half-way done with our first session and are happy to share a selection of photographs from an eventful two weeks. Highlights have included trips to Dublin where we saw several exhibitions including the fantastic As Above So Below at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. We were able to enjoy […]
Opening Reception Saturday 1st July at 1.30pm at Wexford County Council Buildings, Carricklawn The Arts Department of Wexford County Council in partnership with Wexford Arts Centre are delighted to present And Creatures Dream…A New Language, a group exhibition which reveals in part how the visual arts are represented in County Wexford, with focus in this […]
We are delighted to announce our new associate artists (from left to right) Ann Maria Healy, Mathilde Ganancia, Sarah Tynan and Paul Gaffney who in their new roles will be teaching this summer during Art on the Farm. These four artists represent a diverse set of artistic practices ranging from painting to sculpture, installation, performance, video and photography. In their young careers, all have exhibited widely whilst receiving recognition for their exceptional work as recipients of numerous grants and awards. We look forward to working with them over the next few years and are certain they will have much to add to our educational and residency programming.
We are thrilled to once again welcome a group of girls from Agnes Irwin School. This is the fifth year we have had the pleasure of hosting students for their Special Studies Program (SSP). Running for almost 50 years, the SSP programme at Agnes Irwin is designed to offer students experiences away from the classroom […]
This past Sunday we welcomed a group of fantastic students from Friends Academy in Locust Valley, NY for their Global Studies Scholars programme. For the next week, Rosie and Frank will be working with the group to guide them in creating a handmade artist book reflecting on their experiences in Ireland. Through a series of […]
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.
Residency: Sunday, May 7th – Saturday, May 20th
Public Discussion: Friday, May 19th (2pm)
We are thrilled to once again host a residency with Age & Opportunity for the 2017 Bealtaine Festival. Following on the success of last year’s residency, artists Vivienne Dick, Kevin Gaffney & Kathy Prendergast have been invited by Bealtaine to take up residence at Cow House for two full weeks from May 7th to the 20th. The premise for this residency is to allow this intergenerational group of artists time to consider their art practice in our rural surrounding.
Image left Kevin Gaffney still from A Numbness in the Mouth, 4K Video, 2016, centre Vivienne Dick still from The Irreducible Difference of the Other, 2013, right Kathy Prendergast, Fujidelic, ink on paper, 2015-2016
Cow House Studios Autumn Residency, 2017
With the generous support of Wexford County Council & The National College of Art & Design, Cow House Studios presents Rising from the Hill: Local Systems in Global Contexts, a 6-week residency that will explore and develop methods of giving aesthetic forms to real-life, situations. In particular, participants will respond to the local environment of Cow House Studios, in the rural Irish countryside of Wexford. Participants will be encouraged to use ideas, strategies, and metaphors of “systems” to consider the complex relationships between this local context and larger global systems such as economics, telecommunications, meteorology and so on.
This residency was conceived in the spirit of meaningful exchange between practice and theory and as an outcome of on-going collaborative projects between Francis Halsall and Kelley O’Brien investigating social relations through the lens of systems. This means to uncouple systems from individual humans and think of them, instead, as complex interactions of people, architecture, things, communications, and environments. In other words, individuals are not separate from their environments, but rather, an integral part of them.
Dates: October 17th – 28th, 2017
The Map is Not the Territory is an exciting new residency opportunity open to emerging and mid-career artists, writers and those operating at the intersection of the two art-forms, during which participants work with a dynamic group of facilitators to produce material, both textual and visual, for a collaborative publication. This residency is a joint effort between Cow House Studios and two of the Co-Editors of Paper Visual Art Journal, Nathan O’Donnell and curator Marysia Wieckiewicz-Carroll.
The curatorial team & project facilitators aim is to capitalise on the natural resources of the local area through a direct engagement with the land surrounding Cow House Studios. They take their cue from Alfred Korzebski’s dictum, ‘The Map is Not the Territory’, which points to an ontological gap between lived reality and the mapped or otherwise abstracted models of reality through which much of the world is understood. Following on from this conceptual dichotomy, this residency will explore the geographic location of the studios, unpacking ideas of abstraction, translation, cartography, and other fictions.
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.
Our final post highlighting the facilitators for How to Flatten a Mountain, our exciting opportunity for artists who’s work in whole or part makes use of photography, features the work of Aisling McCoy. The deadline for this residency and exhibition opportunity is this coming Sunday and you can read more about it here… Aisling McCoy […]
In our second post highlighting the fantastic photographers that will be facilitating workshops during How to Flatten a Mountain, we’re happy to feature the work of Matthew Thompson. The deadline for this residency and exhibition opportunity is quickly approaching. You can find more information about the program and application process here… Matthew is an Irish […]
We are pleased to announce Kim Haughton as one of our facilitators for How to Flatten a Mountain, our exciting residency opportunity open to emerging and mid-career visual artists whose artistic practice in whole or part makes use of digital and/or analogue photographic processes. As an integral part of the residency, three artists will facilitate […]
For the next month, Co-Directors Rosie O’Gorman and Frank Abruzzese will be travelling in the United States visiting schools, attending summer program fairs, meeting with artists, students and families interested in our studios. We are more than happy to take the time to meet with people to discuss Art on the Farm, our summer program […]
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.
Applications are now open!
The Open Residency Program at Cow House Studios is intended to offer artists critically valuable time and space to think, research and make new work. The aim of this residency is to minimise distraction and ensure that momentum gained while working in the studio can be acted upon, helping to make even shorter stays highly productive.
Applications are open to both Irish and international cultural practitioners working in any discipline; visual artists, theatre-makers, writers, thinkers, choreographers, designers, performers, filmmakers, sculptors, photographers, etc. are all strongly encouraged to apply.
We are now accepting applications for our new associate artist position!
Cow House Studios, Wexford, Ireland seeks four associate artists to assist in delivering its educational and residency programming throughout the calendar year. The successful candidates must be gifted, exhibiting artists, capable of and eager to teach young and aspirational students. Associate artists will develop challenging and innovative lesson plans alongside Co-Directors Rosie O’Gorman and Frank Abruzzese and play a key role in mentoring young adults while encouraging artistic excellence. Additionally, associate artists will have the opportunity to avail of residency opportunities at Cow House Studios throughout the year and assist in the development and delivery of new residency and educational opportunities.
Dates: April 24th – May 5th, 2017
howtoflattenamountain.com
How to Flatten a Mountain is an exciting residency opportunity open to emerging and mid-career visual artists whose artistic practice in whole or part, makes use of digital and/or analogue photographic processes.
The aim of this residency is for participating artists to explore possibilities outside their core practice, work collaboratively and produce a cohesive exhibition of work to be presented at PhotoIreland Festival 2017. During the residency, participants will take an active part in a series of workshops led by guest facilitators and as a group will be sharing ideas, making work, processing, printing, editing, as needed, always working in collaboration. As an integral part of the residency, three artists based in Ireland will facilitate day-long workshops to provoke and animate different avenues for thought. Each facilitator brings to the residency new perspectives, challenges and opportunities for participants.
We are proud to showcase a selection of artwork made during our 2016 sessions of Art on the Farm. In this gallery, you will see five works from each of our students representing a wide variety of media. Black and white darkroom prints, charcoal drawings, watercolor and oil paintings sit alongside sculptural work, digital composites, videos […]