Emma Roche

Emma Roche lives and works in Wexford. Rooted in the mechanics and history of painting, this work is fuelled by abstraction, experimentation, and everyday interruptions. There is an interest in paint’s liquidity and how it mirrors that of the body, with imagery evoking tears, excretions, and fluid states. Monochrome works sit next to figurative works and vice versa.

Preliminary drawings have recently expanded into wallpaper installations and a parallel series of portraits including "Sally" play with ideas of iconography, solidarity and gratitude.

Emma Roche
"Sally", 2025
knitted paint
28 x 24cm

Survey

  • Imithe, 2024

    Knitted acrylic paint on wooden laths
    50 x 35 cm

  • Two-player, 2025

    knitted acrylic paint on wooden laths
    35 x 28 cm

  • Movie Night, 2024

    Knitted acrylic paint on wooden laths
    50 x 42cm

  • Blinne, 2025

    knitted acrylic paint and gold leaf on wooden laths
    68 x 40 x 1.5cm

Biography

Recent exhibitions include ‘Gutter Habit’ at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda. She was an Artist in Residence at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation, New York and was awarded the inaugural Lady Grantchester Prize as part of the John Moore’s Painting Prize, Liverpool, 2023 . She received the EMERGENCE Award from Wexford Arts Centre, 2021-2023. Her work is in private and public collections including Highlanes Gallery, Butler Gallery, Wexford Arts Centre, Crawford Gallery (the National Collection), the Arts Council of Ireland and the OPW. 

She will have a solo exhibition at Brigitte Mulholland Gallery, Paris in November 2026. Supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, 2025.