GOMA Gallery of Modern Art Waterford

GOMA Gallery of Modern Art Waterford Our aim is to foster in society an awareness, understanding & involvement in visual arts through pol (Whelan & Kelly, 2015)

GOMA is dedicated to innovation, through the collection, and interpretation of modern and contemporary art, through the use of educational initiatives and collaborations. In time the foundation aims to engage both local and national audiences. Our mission is to foster within society, an awareness, understanding and involvement in the visual arts through policies and programmes which are excellent, innovative and inclusive.

Artist Spotlight: Sophie Hutchinson ✨As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMAWaterford is delighted to launch a s...
05/08/2026

Artist Spotlight: Sophie Hutchinson ✨

As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMA
Waterford is delighted to launch a special anniversary programme of 10 month-long residencies, taking place throughout summer and autumn 2026: 10 Residencies for 10 Years!

Here, we’d like to tell you more about the artists who will take part in this special initiative, starting with one of our resident artists this August: Sophie Hutchinson.

Sophie Hutchinson is a dance artist and movement practitioner originally from Waterford City, now based in Cork. A graduate of the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, she works across live performance, moving image, and installation. Informed by Body-Mind Centering® and Authentic Movement, her practice explores embodiment, place, and our relationship to the world we inhabit. As one half of Hutchinson | Kemp, she collaborates with audio-visual artist Billy Kemp to create interdisciplinary works across dance, moving image, sound, and installation. Their film Nothing Exists Until It Moves (2025) has recently been developed into an installation for presentation at CineDans Festival 2026 at the EYE Filmmuseum, Amsterdam.

Instagram: Sophie Hutchinson Billy Kemp
Website: https://www.billykemp.info/  https://www.dancerocklands.com/
Photo credits: Natalia Ziętara

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This programme is our way of marking that milestone by staying true to what GOMA has always stood for: giving artists the time and space to take risks, develop ideas, and go deeper into their work.
Each selected artist receives a month-long residency including a studio space at GOMA, a €1,000 bursary, and accommodation. There is no requirement to produce a specific outcome or exhibition; the focus is on process, research, and sustained engagement with practice, alongside connection to GOMA’s studio community and our wider programme of talks, workshops and events.

Kindly funded by the Arts Council Ireland and Waterford City and County Council.

Artist Spotlight: James Wellwood ✨As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMAWaterford is delighted to launch a spec...
05/08/2026

Artist Spotlight: James Wellwood ✨

As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMA
Waterford is delighted to launch a special anniversary programme of 10 month-long residencies, taking place throughout summer and autumn 2026: 10 Residencies for 10 Years!

Here, we’d like to tell you more about the artists who will take part in this special initiative, starting with one of our resident artists this August: James Wellwood.

James Wellwood (b. 1999) is a Kilkenny-based visual artist. His practice documents everyday experiences and his immediate surroundings, with a particular focus on rural spaces. Through painting, drawing, and sculptural processes, his work captures quiet, intimate moments and fragments of daily life that might otherwise go unnoticed.

In 2025, he undertook a three-month residency with Breaking the Patterns in Chania, Crete. That same year, he was awarded a Kilkenny Arts Office Arts Act Grant, followed by the Artlinks Bursary Award in 2026.

Instagram: James Wellwood

***
This programme is our way of marking that milestone by staying true to what GOMA has always stood for: giving artists the time and space to take risks, develop ideas, and go deeper into their work.
Each selected artist receives a month-long residency including a studio space at GOMA, a €1,000 bursary, and accommodation. There is no requirement to produce a specific outcome or exhibition; the focus is on process, research, and sustained engagement with practice, alongside connection to GOMA’s studio community and our wider programme of talks, workshops and events.

Kindly funded by the Arts Council Ireland and Waterford City and County Council.

Artist Spotlight: Ríon Duffy Murphy ✨As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMAWaterford is delighted to launch a s...
05/08/2026

Artist Spotlight: Ríon Duffy Murphy ✨

As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMA
Waterford is delighted to launch a special anniversary programme of 10 month-long residencies, taking place throughout summer and autumn 2026: 10 Residencies for 10 Years!

Here, we’d like to tell you more about the artists who will take part in this special initiative, starting with one of our resident artists this August: Ríon Duffy Murphy.

Ríon Duffy Murphy (they/them) is a socially engaged visual artist, working primarily with textiles. Their practice centres q***rness, play, storytelling, intimacy, and neurodivergence. Their most recent work consists of interactive, human-scale soft sculptures, featuring rich colour and texture. Ríon was previously co-director of gender.RIP, a visual art collective focused on hosting q***r creative spaces and platforming trans and nonbinary artists.

Instagram:
Website: www.rionduffymurphy.com

***
This programme is our way of marking that milestone by staying true to what GOMA has always stood for: giving artists the time and space to take risks, develop ideas, and go deeper into their work.
Each selected artist receives a month-long residency including a studio space at GOMA, a €1,000 bursary, and accommodation. There is no requirement to produce a specific outcome or exhibition; the focus is on process, research, and sustained engagement with practice, alongside connection to GOMA’s studio community and our wider programme of talks, workshops and events.

Kindly funded by the Arts Council Ireland and Waterford City and County Council.

We’re delighted to welcome the next three artists joining our 10-month residency programme, created to celebrate 10 year...
04/08/2026

We’re delighted to welcome the next three artists joining our 10-month residency programme, created to celebrate 10 years of GOMA.
Welcome Ríon Duffy Murphy, James Wellwood and Sophie Hutchinson.

As part of our 10th birthday celebrations, GOMA
Waterford is delighted to launch a special anniversary programme of 10 month-long residencies, taking place throughout summer and autumn 2026.

Over the past decade GOMA has grown within Waterford’s generous and vibrant artistic community, shaped by the artists and audiences who make this space what it is. This programme is our way of marking that milestone by staying true to what GOMA has always stood for: giving artists the time and space to take risks, develop ideas, and go deeper into their work.

Each selected artist receives a month-long residency including a studio space at GOMA, a €1,000 bursary, and accommodation. There is no requirement to produce a specific outcome or exhibition; the focus is on process, research, and sustained engagement with practice, alongside connection to GOMA’s studio community and our wider programme of talks, workshops and events.

Congratulations to all ten artists selected for this special residency programme: Niam Coffey, Tara Keegan, Róisín O’Sullivan, Ríon Duffy Murphy, James Wellwood, Sophie Hutchinson, Artem Trofimenko, Paul Mac Cormaic, Ben Reilly and Sarah Long. We can’t wait to welcome everyone to the studios!

Kindly funded by the Arts Council Ireland and Waterford City and County Council.



James Wellwood Sophie Hutchinson

BANA RUA’s 10 Year Anniversary Garden Gig 🎉 GOMA Gallery is delighted to present a very special celebration as BANA RUA ...
04/08/2026

BANA RUA’s 10 Year Anniversary Garden Gig 🎉

GOMA Gallery is delighted to present a very special celebration as BANA RUA Bana Rua marks 10 years.

This year is a milestone for BANA RUA where they celebrate their 10th anniversary. BANA RUA was founded right here in GOMA a decade ago the same year GOMA was founded, and we’re incredibly proud to have had such talented musicians call GOMA home over the years.

Join us on Saturday, 8th August at GOMA Waterford for a FREE Garden GIG event celebrating ten years of music, memories and community. We’ll be welcoming back past members of the band to perform many of the tunes that have become favourites over the years.

Free entry | All Welcome!

Join us for an Artist Talk with Sharon Murphy Sharon Murphy , where she will share insights into her creative practice, ...
01/08/2026

Join us for an Artist Talk with Sharon Murphy Sharon Murphy , where she will share insights into her creative practice, inspirations, and the ideas behind her current exhibition Mise en Abyme.

Next Saturday, 8 August, 1 - 2 PM at GOMA Waterford.

This is a free, informal event and everyone is welcome - just drop in. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sharon Murphy draws from her background in theatre and influences from psychoanalysis and magic realism. Delving into theatrical settings, she captures moments of quiet and stillness. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.

“Within these spaces, the boundaries between the authentic and the artificial become blurred.
The settings I construct evoke an interplay between recollection and imagination, raising questions about whether the images present a genuine memory or a fabricated vision. I am interested in how memory, like a staged performance, can be rehearsed, revised, and reshaped. The distorted prism of memory itself aligns with the constructed, performative nature of these spaces. As viewers navigate these environments, their sense of reality becomes destabilized, mimicking the way memory falters and reconfigures itself over time.
These sites are not simply backdrops, but active participants in the exploration of perception, narrative, and the delicate threshold between truth and illusion.”
- Sharon Murphy, 2025

Please drop by for this opportunity to hear more about this body of work from the artist herself - no booking is necessary and all are very welcome.

GOMA Waterford is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Waterford City & County Council.

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01/08/2026

Red Lead are delighted to announce our latest project "The Franco Farce" has entered the editing stage! A perfect opportunity to work on a new logo: Watch this space! Thanks, as always, to Jenna Whelan and all at GOMA for hosting our weekly meetings ❤️

Thank you John Power Photography
27/07/2026

Thank you John Power Photography

22/07/2026

We’d love to invite you to the official opening of the ‘Mise en Abyme’ show by Sharon Murphy tomorrow 23rd of July, 6-8pm at GOMA Waterford!

Guest Speaker, Cristin Leach.
Cristin Leach is an Irish author, radio and television presenter, journalist and art critic.

Exhibition runs from Wednesday 15 July until 16 August, 11am - 5pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays.
The official launch on Thursday 23rd of July 6-8.

GOMA Gallery of Modern Art is delighted to present Mise en Abyme, an art exhibition by Sharon Murphy.
Murphy draws from her background in theatre and influences from psychoanalysis and magic realism.
Delving into theatrical settings, she captures moments of quiet and stillness. Through recurring symbols such as curtains, deserted stages, and performative environments, she investigates the thin line between illusion and reality, presence and absence.

In Western art history, ‘mise en abyme’ is the technique of placing a copy of an image within itself. Murphy uses this concept as a metaphor to investigate the boundaries between real and fictive spaces, concentrating on recurring motifs of theatre curtains, outdoor carousels, circus tents, performative sites, city parks and empty stages. This work addresses the essential nature of photographic seeing, performance, and Freud’s notion of the uncanny where the familiar becomes suddenly strange and disconcerting through a play between presence and absence, evoking both enchantment and a pang of unease.

GOMA Waterford is kindly supported by the Arts Council of Ireland and Waterford City & County Council.
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We are incredibly grateful to The Arts Council The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon for their continued support thro...
20/07/2026

We are incredibly grateful to The Arts Council The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon for their continued support through the Arts Grant Funding stream for our 2027 programme.

Address

6 Lombard Street
Waterford
X91F2XP

Opening Hours

Tuesday 12pm - 5pm
Wednesday 12pm - 5pm
Thursday 12pm - 5pm
Friday 12pm - 5pm
Saturday 12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+353871961923

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