PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILS ABOUT MY PRACTICE INCLUDING MY BIO, STATEMENT AND C.V.

BIOGRAPHY

I am originally from Dublin, but now live and work in Wexford. I am a current artist in residence in Westgate Visual Art Studios. I hold a BA (hons) in Art.

Awards include: Artlinks Visual Art Bursary 2026. Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award 2021, Artlinks bursary 2018 and County Wexford Arts Department’s Tyrone Guthrie award 2014. I was shortlisted for Hambly & Hambly’s John Richardson French Residency Award 2025. In 2018  I had a residency and exhibition in Hong Kong at the invite of the Irish Asia Festival. I was awarded primary school residencies under the auspices of the Living Arts Project in 2014, 2106, 2017 and in 2018. From from 2018 to 2025, I was a lead artist with County Wexford Arts Department’s Arts Ability programme.

Selected Solo exhibitions include: SPF50, Wexford Creative Hub as Part of Wexford Arts Centre Make Curate Programme, 2022 and Scelíní in Paint, Anita Chan Lai – Ling Gallery, Hong Kong by invite of the Irish Asia Festival, 2018.

Selected Group Exhibitions include: Goma Waterford 8th Annual Winter Exhibition, 2025/6. Wide Open Space, County Hall, Wexford. Group show curated by Eamonn Maxwell, 2022. Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London, 2022

STATEMENT

My practice explores memory, examining lives and histories. For many years, II have worked from family photographs, revisiting moments,  questioning how memory functions - what is retained, what erodes, and what is reimagined. Sustained engagement with familial archives forms the foundation of my practice and directly informs my planned body of new work about women in domestic service, which will commence in the coming months.My interest in this subject is historical and personal. My great aunt worked as a nanny. She devoted her life to the family she served, even turning down marriage proposal because she did not want to leave the children in her care. Within our family, her identity was subsumed by her role; she was known only as “Nana,”  her real name lost. This erasure of individual identity reflects the wider experience of many women in domestic service. My new work will consist of two interconnected strands. Firstly a series of paintings and drawings portraying some of these women, based on archival research and familial stories. By painting the lives of domestic servants, I aim to confer a sense of reverence, dignity, and permanence - and most importantly to make work that highlights their narratives. The second strand will consist of abstract paintings that act as proxies for their daily live in service. Together, the figurative and abstract works will offer both personal presence and collective experience.

EDUCATION

BA(hons)Art, Wexford School of Art & Design

MEMBERSHIPS

Member of Sample Studios, Cork

RESIDENCIES

Current Artist in residence in Westgate Visual Art Studios

Irish Asia Festival 2018 with the support of Culture Ireland.

Primary school residencies under the auspices of the Living Arts Project in 2014, 2106, 2017 and in 2018. 

Lead artist with County Wexford Arts Department’s Arts Ability programme 2018-2025

AWARDS

2026 Artlinks Bursary Award

2025 Shortlisted for John Richardson French Residency Award.2021-

2021 -Arts council Agility award
2018- Artlinks Bursary
2014- Tyrone Guthrie Award 2014 via Wexford County Council.
2014 - Artlinks Clinic Mentoring via Artlinks Mentoring Programme.

2013- Artlinks Clinic Mentoring via Artlinks Mentoring Programme

2009 - Merit Award, Celebrating the Arts, Wexford Arts Centre.

2008 - F.X.Butler Award, ‘Lirico 2008’ Wexford Arts Centre, May 2008

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022 SPF 50, Creative Hub Wexford- included an ‘in conversation with’ between Oonagh Latchford and art historian/ curator Catherine Marshall, supported by Wexford Arts Centre and Wexford County Council’s MAKEcurate programme.

2019 Lifelines, D’Lush, Wexford Arts Centre,

2018 Sceilini in Paint, Anita Chan Lai-Ling Gallery, Fringe Club, Hong Kong,
(With the support of Culture Ireland)

2018, Hook Lighthouse

2016  In the long Grass, The Annexe, Wexford Arts Centre

2014 Light Poiesis, Upstairs Gallery, Kilkenny.
2013 The Language of Light, The Presentation Centre, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford

2012 Night and Day, d’Lush Cafe, Wexford Arts Centre, Cornmarket, Wexford

SELECTED OTHER EXHIBITIONS

2026

Pigyard Gallery Winter Show

2025

Goma Waterford 8th Annual Winter Exhibition Dec 25-Jan 26

Exhibition of shortlisted artists John Richardson French Residency Award, Hambly & Hambly, Enniskillen.

Gift for Gaza, Greenacres Gallery, Wexford.

2024

Panecea, Waterford Gallery of Art, Pop up 7 person show

2023
Mermaid 21. Open submission Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow

Summer of Love. Open submission show, Courthouse Gallery, Clare

2022
Wide Open Space, County Hall, Wexford. Group show curated by Eamonn Maxwell.
Society of Women Artists Annual Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London.
Pigyard gallery, group show
2021
Pluid project – Open submission charity exhibition Farmleigh House
Artform Group show (online)
Nua collective group show (online)
2019

Glass Half Full, Creative Hub, Wexford. (Two person show with the support of Wexford Arts Centre & the arts Department of Wexford County Council.)
Enniscorthy Art Trail (Invited artist)
2108:

Painting Is dead- Who Says? Kamera 8, Wexford (Group show curated by Anya Van Gosseln)

2017
Summer show Newtownbarry House, Bunclody, Wexford, Invited Artist

2016

Summer Group show, Newtownbarry House, Bunclody. Curated by Anya von Gosseln. Chromaticity, group show, Presentation Centre, Enniscorthy, Wexford.

2015
Art panther, Art Panther, Wexford.
2014
Greenacres Summer Show, Greenacres, Selskar, Wexford.
2012

Greenacres Open Submission Show, Greenacres, Wexford
2011
The Engine Room, Group show, Studio Nine, Wexford.
WOSP Charity Art Exhibition, Teachers Club, Parnell Sq West, Dublin 1.
2010
Art in the Open, Greenacres, Wexford
Degree Show, Wexford School of Art & Design, Wexford
2009
Art in the Open 2009, Whites Hotel, Wexford.
Eigse 2009, IT Carlow.
Celebrating the Arts, Wexford Arts Centre.
Stone Soup, group show, Westgate Heritage Centre, Wexford

 COLLECTIONS

Wexford Vocational College, IT Carlow, Keiser Tiger, Chicago, Ashdown Hotel, Wexford, Sales Placement, Dublin, Ahead Ireland, Dublin. Wexford County Council. Many private collections in Ireland, America and Hong Kong.

PUBLICATIONS

New Realities / Imagined Landscapes, An essay looking at the work of Irish Artist Elizabeth Magill, Paper Visual Art Journal, May 2010 http://papervisualart.com/?p=2429

My BA (hons) degree show work was featured in issue one of StudentZine, an online publication for contemporary art.

4am,Oil on Canvas, 80cm x 80cm featured on the front cover of The girl missing from the window, Paul O’Reilly, Doire Press. 2015

Cooling down, Oil on Canvas, 30cm x 30cm was on the cover of Passengers Journal, Volume 4, Issue 1, 2023

In 2023 six of my drawings were featured in Things Fall apart, The centre cannot hold – a publication of the Irish Embassy in Nigeria.

5000 degrees Kelvin, Oil on Canvas, 100cm x 150cm will appear in Beyond Words literary magazine in February 24.

Oonagh Latchford SPF50 by Catherine Marshall, Visual Artists Newsletter, January/Febuary 2023 https://issuu.com/visualartistsireland/docs/van_jf_2023/s/17838659?fbclid=IwAR2nCfMMF9wgJ6zpY9rDyQ3RyI wip4TJpAbO7G_kJi8IcxUWyUNguJrLWtFY7