Backwater Artists Group

Backwater Artists Group Artist-led organisation supporting visual artists in Cork through studio space, exhibitions, professional development and public events.

Join us at Backwater Artists Group this Culture Night for an opportunity to explore our artists’ studios and visit our S...
27/08/2026

Join us at Backwater Artists Group this Culture Night for an opportunity to explore our artists’ studios and visit our Studio 12 gallery.

Studio Tours
Take part in a guided half-hour tour of our artists’ studios, offering a rare opportunity to step inside working studio spaces, meet resident artists, and hear directly about their practices and day-to-day creative lives. Tours will take place at 5pm, 5.40pm, 6.20pm and 7pm.
Booking is essential via Eventbrite/ Website (link in bio).

Studio 12 Gallery
Our Studio 12 gallery will be open throughout the evening, where you can visit Room Innate by Backwater Moving Image Bursary recipient Danny Foley. From 6.30–7.30pm, Danny will be present in the gallery to meet visitors and share insights into the exhibition and his wider practice.

Room Innate explores artistic play as a creative strategy for negotiating the self as shapeshifting, multifaceted and inherently vulnerable. The installation brings together black-and-white paintings on canvas, stop-motion video, re-edited archival footage from Foley’s childhood and small-scale clay sculptures. Through making, experimentation and repetition, Foley engages with uncertainty, doubt and ambiguity rather than seeking to resolve them.

In Conversation: Danny Foley with Dr Collette NolanThurs 10 September | 5.30 pmBooking essential via website (link in bi...
26/08/2026

In Conversation: Danny Foley with Dr Collette Nolan
Thurs 10 September | 5.30 pm
Booking essential via website (link in bio)

Join artist Danny Foley in conversation with artist, educator and researcher Dr Collette Nolan, Foley’s mother, as they discuss Room Innate and the ideas underpinning his new exhibition.

A significant element of the exhibition is Foley’s reworking of archival footage recorded by Nolan during his childhood as part of her MA and PhD research. The footage captures Foley’s early embodied gestures and forms of play, which he now revisits and reinterprets through his artistic practice.

The conversation will explore the relationship between childhood, play, memory and artistic making, alongside Foley’s interest in identity, transformation and the “shapeshifter”. Looking at the footage from both Nolan’s perspective as its original creator and Foley’s perspective as the adult artist reworking it, the discussion offers a unique insight into the development of his practice and the personal material at the heart of Room Innate.

Danny Foley is a Cork based artist and studio-holder at Backwater Artists Group. He holds a BA First-Class Honours Degree in Fine Art from MTU Crawford College of Art and Design (2025). His art practice spans drawing, painting, moving-image, and installation. Informed by archival footage from his childhood, he explores identity through “the shapeshifter” as both an artistic approach and conceptual framework across mythological, ecological, and personal perspectives.

Dr. Collette Nolan is a Cork based visual artist, researcher and educator working in the medium of experimental video and installation. he completed an MA by Research at CCAD and a PhD by Practice in Media at NAD and the Graduate School of Creative Arts & Media, Dublin, (GradCAM). She is a director/studio holder of Coal Yard Studios (Cork Artists Collective) and is a Fine Art lecturer at the Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork.

The winners of the Graduate Residency Award (aka Paint Store Bursary) will soon be starting their nine-month studio resi...
25/08/2026

The winners of the Graduate Residency Award (aka Paint Store Bursary) will soon be starting their nine-month studio residency at Backwater Artists Group.

Awarded in partnership with MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, the Graduate Residency Award (aka Paint Store Bursary) provides studio space for nine months at Backwater Artists Group and access to MTU CCAD library facilities in exchange for part-time support within the MTU Materials Shop.

Backwater Artists Group has supported emerging artists since 1990 through a dedicated Bursary Programme developed in partnership with MTU Crawford College of Art & Design.

Each year we provide studio access, mentorship and exhibition opportunities to graduating artists. To date, over 130 artists have benefited from these awards.

Congratulations to this year’s winners, Tara Fitzgearld and Ann Marie Roche. We look forward to welcoming you to Backwater Artists Group and supporting you in the next chapter of your careers!

We’re delighted to welcome artist and printmaker Brian Barry into his six-month Project Residency at Backwater.A Cork ar...
21/08/2026

We’re delighted to welcome artist and printmaker Brian Barry into his six-month Project Residency at Backwater.

A Cork artist with a long-standing interest in printmaking and primitive photography, Brian’s work has been shaped by travel and time spent living in Spain, where he founded Impresiones Gigantes, a collective of printmakers who brought their studios onto the street and transformed an industrial road roller into a printing press. His work has since been exhibited in Ireland and internationally.

For his residency, Brian is looking forward to returning to drawing and giving himself the time and space to explore some old and new ideas:

“It’s a great chance for me to get back to drawing habitually. First of all I’ll be using my time to sift through and make sense of old material. I also intend to return to an idea of creating a body of work inspired by an Irish novel. In time I’ll work in some daily drawing exercises.”

Most of all, Brian says he’s looking forward to “closing the studio door behind me and doing a few scribbles simply for the craic.”

We’re very happy to have Brian in the studios and look forward to seeing where the residency takes his work.

Behind the Scenes...Room Innate by Danny Foley opens tomorrow evening, Thurs 20th at 6 pm, with finishing touches underw...
19/08/2026

Behind the Scenes...

Room Innate by Danny Foley opens tomorrow evening, Thurs 20th at 6 pm, with finishing touches underway.

Developed through the Backwater Artists Group Moving Image Bursary, awarded in 2025, Room Innate features paintings, sculpture, stop-motion video and archival footage from Foley's childhood. The exhibition explores artistic play as a creative strategy for negotiating the self as shapeshifting, multifaceted, and inherently vulnerable.

Join us for the opening reception:

Thursday 20 August | 6pm | Studio 12
Free event | All welcome

The exhibition continues until 25 September 2026.

The Moving Image Bursary Award is awarded to a graduating moving image artist from MTU Crawford College of Art & Design, who demonstrates talent and ambition in their work practice. The Bursary provides a professional level of support to the graduate, including a solo exhibition opportunity in our Studio 12 exhibition/project space, mentorship, curatorial and technical support, artists fee and PR support. It assists the graduate in the transition from student to professionally practicing artist.

Room Innate | Danny Foley21 August – 25 September 2026Tues – Fri | 10 am – 5pmStudio 12 | Backwater Artists Group, Wande...
18/08/2026

Room Innate | Danny Foley
21 August – 25 September 2026
Tues – Fri | 10 am – 5pm
Studio 12 | Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay, Cork

Opening Reception
Thurs 20 August | 6 pm
All welcome

In Conversation
Thurs 10 September | 5.30 pm
Booking essential via website (link in bio)

Room Innate presents a new body of work by artist Danny Foley, developed through the Backwater Artists Group Moving Image Bursary, awarded to Foley in 2025.

The show consists of black-and-white paintings on canvas, a stop-motion video, reedited archival footage from his childhood, and small-scale clay sculptures.
These works emerged from a response to contemporary life, where exposure to competing demands, digital platforms, perfectionism, and social conduct can create a sense of internal conflict and paralysis. Adapting to these can often result in suppressing aspects of ourselves that may be perceived as negative or socially unacceptable.

Drawing on Carl Jung's concept of the "shadow self", Room Innate examines the elements of identity that are often denied, repressed, or concealed. Making reference to the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth, where the Minotaur traditionally represents the unconscious or perceived flaws of the self, Foley looks behind the framework of this narrative.

Another fantastic workshop in our members' skill-sharing series, led by Séan Daly, in our Studio 12 gallery and project ...
13/08/2026

Another fantastic workshop in our members' skill-sharing series, led by Séan Daly, in our Studio 12 gallery and project space.

As Backwater's resident Exhibition Technician, Seán Daly oversees installations in Studio 12 and The Long Space galleries. He brings over 10 years of experience in exhibition production, having worked with major cultural events and institutions.

In this workshop, members explored the key considerations involved in planning, installing and hanging an exhibition professionally and safely. Séan shared his extensive knowledge on pre-production, handling & transport, surface preparation, AV, Tech and Tool Use.

If you're interested in taking part in workshops like this, why not consider becoming a member?

Details about all our membership options are available on our website (link in bio).

13/08/2026

Heritage Day tours Saturday 15 August
Join Backwater Artists Group, Cork Printmakers and Lavit Gallery for two special tours of the historic Wandesford Quay building on Heritage Day.
Booking open through Eventbrite - https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/heritage-day-tours-tickets-1991978910544

Each tour will take you on a journey through the building’s history as part of Cork’s wider heritage story, exploring how its spaces have been adapted over time and are now home to three of Cork’s leading arts organisations.

Representatives from Backwater Artists Group, Cork Printmakers and Lavit Gallery will guide you through the building, sharing the stories of its past and the work of the organisations based there today. The tour will include a visit to the historic vaults at Lavit Gallery, an introduction to Cork Printmakers and its printmaking community, and a look at Backwater’s artist-led studios and creative spaces.

We look forward to welcoming you and sharing the stories of this unique building and the organisations that now call it home.

Tour 1: 13:00 – 14.00
Tour 2: 14.00 – 15:00

Meeting Point: Lavit Gallery

Cork Heritage Open Day Heritage Week

13/08/2026

Exhibitions from our members opening across August

This Saturday | Heritage Day at Wandesford QuayJoin Backwater Artists Group, Cork Printmakers and Lavit Gallery for a sp...
12/08/2026

This Saturday | Heritage Day at Wandesford Quay

Join Backwater Artists Group, Cork Printmakers and Lavit Gallery for a special guided tour of the historic Wandesford Quay building as part of Heritage Week.

Discover the building’s history and how its spaces have evolved to become home to three of Cork’s leading arts organisations. The tour includes the historic vaults at Lavit Gallery, Cork Printmakers’ printmaking community and Backwater’s artist-led studios and creative spaces.

Saturday 15 August
Tour 1: 1–2pm
Tour 2: 2–3pm
Meeting point: Lavit Gallery

Limited places available — book via Cork Printmakers Eventbrite.

Address

Backwater Artists Group, Wandesford Quay
Cork
T12E26D

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm

Website

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