Catherine Ward

About

Catherine Ward (b. 2000) is an Irish artist working with painting, photography and drawing. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Ireland in 2023 with a BA in Fine Art Painting. In 2022, she completed her Erasmus programme studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig, Germany.

Her work is inspired by landscapes marked by human interventions. And is a mediation on the material condition of land, expressed as a finite resource. There is a direct relationship between the marks on the canvas and those on the surface of the landscape. And a sense of both presence and absence in the work; the recognisable and the abstract.

Behemoth (Ffos-y-fran) (2025) is a painting inspired by the coal mining landscape of Ffos-y-fran in Wales. It is the culmination of a project focused on researching former mining sites across the UK and Ireland, linked by geological lines. These works aim to highlight the lack of responsibility taken to remediate former mining sites; leaving devastating environmental and social impacts in their wake. Often in remote and inaccessible locations, Ward captures these abandoned landscapes through the use of the aerial view. She also collects and uses materials found at the sites such as anthracite, ochre and iron oxide in her work.

Recent solo and duo exhibitions include What Remains (2025) at Farmleigh House & Estate and Strange Signals (2023) with Natalie Pullen at the Ardgillan Castle Gallery. She has received awards such as the Arts Council of Ireland Agility Award (2023), Thomas Dammann Junior Memorial Trust Award (2023), the Fingal County Council Artists’ Support Scheme (2023, 2022) and her work is included in the Irish State Art Collection.

Supported by the George Moore Scholarship.