Join artist Ciara Rodgers in conversation with artist and academic Dr Susan Connolly as they discuss materiality, process, and contemporary art practice. Reflecting on Rodgers’ Studio 12 residency, the conversation will explore themes of walking, urban space, and material experimentation alongside Connolly’s expansive painting practice and research. Together, they will consider how making, reflection, and site-responsive approaches shape artistic enquiry and the development of new work.

 

Ciara Rodgers is a Cork City based visual artist who works across drawing, installation, performance, and photography. A studio member of Backwater Artists Group, her work has been exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally often unfolding through collaboration and site-responsive research. Solo presentations include Paper Façades make Tender Follies at Pallas Projects/Studios (2026) and Folly | Façade at GOMA, Waterford (2024). Rodgers holds an MA in Art & Process from MTU CCAD (2018) and was awarded a Visual Art Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland in 2020 and an Agility Award in 2021. Recipient of Cork Midsummer Festival’s Jane Anne Rothwell Award 2026, has recently written for JAWS: Journal of Art & Writing and Source and is completing a practice-based Ph.D at SETU Waterford.

 

Susan Connolly is an artist and academic based between Belfast and Waterford. She holds a PhD from Ulster University and is a lecturer at SETU. Her work has been exhibited widely across Ireland and internationally, with recent and past solo exhibitions including Waterford Gallery of Art, The FE McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge (2024), KunsthausDalhem, Berlin (2020), Platform Arts, Belfast (2018), The Lab, Dublin (2015), dlr LexIcon, Dublin (2015), and The MAC, Belfast (2014). Group exhibitions include New Connections at The Butler Gallery (2023), Uphold in Belfast (2021), Penumbra at The FE McWilliam Gallery (2020), Paint-ing at Draíocht, Dublin (2019), and After an Act at The Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast (2018).