BIOGRAPHY

Emma Roche is a painter based in Wexford, Ireland. Her work is informed by the mechanics and history of painting and her process is inherent to the work.

She makes long lines of extruded paint and then lays them out to dry. Once dry, they are used as wool or thread – the paint strands are knitted together (with knitting needles) to make the painting. This abstract process corresponds to the humdrum of daily repetitiveness and physically records and stores time.

She received the Lady Grantchester Award as part of the John Moore’s Painting Prize, Liverpool (2023), and was a resident at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, New York (2023). She is the 2021 recipient of the EMERGENCE Award, Wexford Arts Centre. Recent solo exhibitions include LOOP. Wexford Arts Centre (2023), Lined Out, Mermaid Arts Centre (2023), Forward Slash, The LAB Gallery, Dublin (2018) and selected group exhibitions include Butler Gallery, Kilkenny (2022), VISUAL, Carlow (2019 & 2020) and Turps Gallery, London (2018).
Roche received a BA from NCAD. Dublin. 2006 and MA in Visual Arts Practice (Mavis), IADT, Dublin (2010). 

Private and public collections include Arts Council of Ireland, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny, Crawford Gallery, Cork, The Office of Public Works, Dublin, Wexford County Council and Wexford Arts Centre.