About:
Latchford holds a BA (hons) in Art. Originally from Dublin, she now lives and works in Wexford. She is a current artist in residence in Westgate Visual Art Studios. She has recently been shortlisted for the John Richardson French Residency Award. An exhibition of shortlisted work will take place in Hambly & Hambly in March 2025. She was recipient of an Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award 2021, Artlinks bursary 2018 and County Wexford Arts Department’s Tyrone Guthrie award 2014. She has been awarded primary school residencies under the auspices of the Living Arts Project in 2014, 2106, 2017 and in 2018. (Other awards can be seen in the artist CV/Exhibition listing section) In addition to her studio practice, she works as a lead facilitator within County Wexford Arts Department Arts Ability programme.
Latchford’s painting practice explores memory as both a deeply personal archive and as a lens through which to imagine alternative futures. Growing up by the sea, the coast has long shaped her internal landscape—its presence a symbol of both continuity and loss. Using old and recent family photographs as source material, she revisits and reinterprets fleeting moments, revealing how memory, like the shoreline, is subject to erosion, distortion, and renewal.
Themes of childhood, family, and the passage of time are central to her work, yet always in conversation with the more-than-human world. The sea, light, and elemental forces are are active agents. She preserves and re-tells personal stories through a series of small drawings, keeping the memories of their subjects alive. These are shown alongside abstract paintings that interpret the places where these memories are anchored. Together, they reflect on the impact of climate change—a theme that first entered the work in 2022, when Latchford discovered that one of the beaches (Courtown, Co. Wexford) seen in her source image, was no longer there due to coastal erosion – and this realisation has embedded a sense of urgency and reflection into her creative process.
The work invites viewers into a dream-space where past and future coexist. By isolating figures in stripped-down backgrounds and dissolving forms into fields of colour and light, she evokes both the fragility and resilience of life. Her work blurs the line between nostalgia and foresight, posing subtle questions: Can memory be a form of resistance? Can art help reimagine a world where humans and nature thrive together?
In response to her 2022 solo exhibition SPF50, art historian Catherine Marshall wrote about this this duality: “Should we be enjoying this, or rushing to firefight?” (VAN Jan/Feb 23). It’s precisely this tension—between delight and danger, play and protection—that defines Latchford’s vision of a rooted utopia. Through her practice, she seeks to protect memories while also dreaming of better futures. Latchford works primarily in oil on canvas or on wood panels with new work seeing the introduction of ink on paper.
Interview with Catherine Marshall can be seen here https://youtu.be/0goLoCYNJjE
