• Practising artist, exhibiting UK and internationally 1988

• Curator of COU COU organising exhibitions, artist residencies, platform performance events  www.coucoucuration.com

• Writer of art reviews, catalogue essays, UK and internationally, art writing blog  http://irisartinsights.tumblr.com/

• Guest lecturer in Fine Art in Further & Higher Education 

• Creative Arts Industry Mentor

• Arts & Dementia Specialist at Blossom Arts  www.blossomarts.net
  
   

EDUCATION

MA(RCA)  Fine Art Printmaking, Royal College of Art London 1986-88

BA(Hons)  Fine Art (First Class), Norwich School of Art  1983-86

Foundation Art, Sir John Cass School of Art London 1980 - 81

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PERFORMANCES & EXHIBITIONS 

2024

WEEZ for BOLD performance event Oxford 

TA-TA performance for WW#4 event Pandora Gallery Berlin 

2023

CELERY performance as GIDDY STICKS with Peta Lloyd for the Frome Festival 

WONKY_NEE performance for OLD TROUTS performance event Silk Mill Frome

OLD GOBS performance as GIDDY STICKS with Peta Lloyd for MOOD at

Ovada  Oxford and at FEET UP Oxford Magdalen Art Space

UTTY_QUEEZ TU for FEET UP event Magdalen Art Space Oxford

UTTY_QUEEZ  performance for INSTANT VORTEX showcase Colchester

WONKY STRANGE performance for ‘Women’s World I’ Pandora Gallery Berlin 

2022

SOS Swindon Open Studios exhibition

LOLL, A performance with Comfort Breaks for ART HAPPENING 

ACAVA Studios London

BLOOM exhibition of drawings Oxfordshire Artweeks 

WONKY for BIDDY programme for FaB Fringe Arts Bath

ALL GOOD THINGS with sculptor Emma Maiden  COU COU Gallery

2021

KITEZI 1  for LAPER ARK-T Oxford

ROOT/HOME 4 online collaboration with mdsm CREiA London & Lisbon

WINGZI & LAUNCH for HOME BOOKS, COU COU Oxford

LAUNCH-ZING The Herbarium BOWER ASHTON LIBRARY Bristol

ROOT/HOME 3 online collaboration with mdsm CREiA London & Lisbon

2020  

ROOT/HOME 2 online collaboration with mdsm CREiA London & Lisbon

BLOWLY for OFFERINGS online collaboration with Ema Mano Epps

ROOT/HOME/HEART 1 online collaboration with mdsm CREiA London & Lisbon  

2019

PINKLY BLUELY for SWIM Oxford

SHOW HOLES 6 LADA London

SHOW HOLES 5 LADA London

SHOW HOES 4 for LAPER Blue Room Oxford

2018  

SHOW HOLES 3 for LAPER Squash & Stretch Modern Art Oxford

FILIA feminist art conference Manchester

WOMAN MACHINE with Ema Mano Epps Cave Space Pimlico London

BLOW Toro Spacio Gallery Ronda Spain

HUGS Platform One Gallery London

DESSERT Platform One Gallery London

SHOW HOLES 1 & 2 Platform One Gallery London 

GLOW GIRL GLOW for DIG Wallingford 

SMILE KEEP SMILING for SQUASH & STRETCH Oxford Brookes

WONKY STRANGE Platform One Gallery London

SMILE PINKLY for LAPER Oxford

CLOUDLY Hawkstone Oxfordshire 

SMILE 1 for DRINK MORE SODA at Oxford Brookes 

2017

ReFUEL for DRINK SODA at Oxford Brookes

OOPS & PURE JOY Owen Mumford Gallery Chipping Norton

LUCID for LAPER Oxford

KEEPER for Festal Favours Charlbury   

FLUSH for Writing Worlds, Gascony France

PARTY GIRLS for The Birthday Party performance event Banbury

FAILTE for ELASTIC at Oxford Brookes University 

2016 BORDERS for HOMUNCULUS Caroline Garden’s Chapel London

2015 FINDINGS for Bath Fringe Festival Bath 

2014 Invited artist ‘GOD’ exhibition Pune India

2012 SIREN & SISTER SHOW Performances Oxford Castle

2011 PLAY OUT Performance Rollright Stones West Oxfordshire

2010 FUEL Performance Video Installation Oxfordshire Artweeks

2008 ‘GAL’ & 'PLAY IN' for ‘GIFT’ at OVADA Oxford

2007 ‘TAGS’ Freshfest Reading

           ‘MINE’ and ‘YOURS’ for Metron Oxford

2006 ‘GIFTEN’ & ‘ECHO’ Hooglandse Kerk Leiden Netherlands July 2006

            Invited artist ‘Inspirations’ Somerset Maugham Gallery Kent

            Selected artist  ‘They Came to See’ Leiden Netherlands July 2006
            & Oxford Town Hall September 2006

2005 The Workshop Open Oxford

2004 Artweeks Oxford

2003 'Independence' South London Gallery

2002 Invited artist 'Objects Talk' Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford

2001 Open Studio Magdalen Road Studios Oxford

2000 Installation ’REFLECTION’ St Peter’s College Chapel, Oxford

1999 Installation ’VOW’, Bartlemas Chapel, Oxford

1998 'KISS' Museum of Modern Art Oxford

1997 Four Artists Bloomin Arts  Oxford
           The Laboratory, Ruskin School of FIne Art, Oxford

1996 'Art in Time' Howards Gardens Gallery Cardiff

         Invited Artist  ‘The Gas Station’  

1995 'WORDS' Fringe Gallery Glasgow

1994 'WORDS' Aspex Gallery Portsmouth

         'Absolut Secret' Gulbenkian Gallery London

1993 'KIN' Pegasus Theatre Oxford 

1991 'AXIS' & 'ENDLESS DEVOTION' Serpentine Gallery London

1990 Invited artist Living Art Museum Reykjavik Iceland

         Invited artist 'Friends of Alistair Grant at the RCA' Gulbenkian Gallery London

         'CLOCK' Museum of Modern Art Oxford

         'ENDLESS DEVOTION' Museum of Modern Art Oxford

1989 'CLOCK' Vibourg Denmark and Malmö Sweden

         Invited artist MOBSHOP IV Denmark & Sweden

1988 'FRAGMENTS OF FALSE HOUSES' Pomeroy Purdy Gallery London

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CURATION

Curator of COU COU (formerly AYYO) since 2012, hosting UK & international artist residencies through the ART PITCH & DWELL Residency Programmes as well as exhibitions, film screenings, open studios and platform performance art events. Curator, with artist Peta Lloyd, of the BIDDY project supporting and showcasing the work of older women artists. Leads the BIDDY BOOST monthly networking and professional development meetings for older women artists in Oxford. www.coucoucuration.com

 

 

ART WRITING 

Critical writing published in UK and International Press includes ‘Barbara Rosenthal’ for Flash Art Online 2009, ‘Existential Interaction’ New York Arts Magazine 2008, ‘Cathy Wilkes’ AN Interface 2008. Art reviews Oxford Times. Catalogue essays include "Festa" Norbert Attard for IMMA Dublin 2008, Steve Mitchell for Brantwood Coniston Cumbria 2016, “Painting The Spark” essay on Nikola Irmer for Hemingway Art 2011.

Invited writer at New Life Berlin Participatory Arts Biennial Berlin 2008,

Art writing blog http://irisartinsights.tumblr.com/

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RECENT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

2022   Participant artist in INSTANT VORTEX PLUS  lens based media workshop for older women artists at Colchester Arts Centre led by Lady Helena Vortex with Giovanna Maria Casetta and Dagmara Bilon 

 

2020 - 21 Participant artist in 4 month long ROOT/HOME/HEART online collaborative workshops with paula roush of mdsm London and Inês Amado Harris of CREiA Creative Attentive Studio for Mindful Art Practice www.msdm.org.uk/creia 

 

2018 Participant artist in the Desperate Artwives series of workshops Removing the Mother-Hood led by Katy Howe for the project Reframing the Sentimental in the Art of the Maternal (Uncovering the power of 'Sentimental' art) performs works in  development

 

2018 Participant artist on the month long How Do I Look residency for women artists who identify as older. Led by Grace Grace Grace at Guest Projects London, it investigated modes of being/doing/inhabiting middle age.

 

2017 Participant artist on the two day LADA DIY HELP THE AGED led by artists Giovanna Maria Casetta with Helena Waters,  based at Lancaster Arts and Morecambe Bay. The workshop explored issues facing the older artist and focussed on creating a positive discourse, writing our own rules and creating an infrastructure to meet our expectations of how to negotiate the territory of ageing as artists.

 

2017 Participant on the Chapter Away ‘Writing Worlds’ residential writing workshop in Gascony France, led by Tracey Warr

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TEACHIING

Higher – Graduate & Post-Graduate Art & Design

Oxford University Department of Continuing Education – lecturing in art history

Oxford University Summer School – teaching course ‘Interpreting Contemporary Art’

Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Art University of Oxford

Royal College of Art London

Chelsea School of Art London

Cumbria College of Art & Design

North Oxfordshire College of Art & Design

University of Sussex

Guildhall University London

Oxford Brookes University

Norwich School of Art & Design

University of Newcastle

Further Education - Foundation Course in Art & Design. National Diploma in Art & Design

Nordland Kunst og Filmskole, Kabelvag, Norway

Sir John Cass School of Art,London

Abingdon & Witney College, Oxford

Oxford Brookes University

Oxford College of Further Education

Oxford Printmakers Co-operative