About

© Jane Sebire

Irish Artist Elizabeth Cope was born in 1952 in Co. Kildare. She currently lives and works in Co. Kilkenny.

Cope has exhibited in galleries and museums all over the world for the past 40 years and is found in many important public and private collections.

“Painting for me is a way of life. I was seduced by the smell of oil paint when I was nine years old: my sister came home from Paris with a box of paints.

The act of painting is like doing a post mortem. You are involved emotionally and yet detached at the same time. This means that the act of painting is dispassionate as well as passionate. I think that the painter has ‘an inner eye’. When I was a child I wanted to be a nun and become a saint, like St. Therese of Lisieux. I soon realized that this would not happen, but perhaps becoming a painter has allowed me to become a ‘second- rate saint’. The dedication of a painter allows a spiritual freedom and I see painting as a kind of prayer that lifts the spirit beyond mundane life.

Like many of the artists I admire I begin with a struggle. Without the struggle occurring in making a painting, I feel that the process of trying to paint is not wholly alive. It is the struggle that counts. In painting there is no resolution; it is an ongoing act.

I paint through the chaos of everyday life, if I were to wait for a quiet moment I would never paint. I believe that painting should also be like dancing and that the real ‘work of art’ is not so much the canvas when the paint is dry, but rather the physical rhythm of the process of painting it.”

ELIZABETH COPE
Shankill, Ireland – September 2019

Videos

Exhibitions

2021: Gerber Fine Art Gallery

Glasgow

2019: Gerber Fine Art Gallery

Saatchi Gallery, London. 3rd – 6th October

2018: Naked Truth

Crawford Gallery, Cork

2019: Borris Literary Festival & Festival of Ideas
Portraits of Writers over 45 years

2018/9: Compass Gallery

Glasgow

2018/9: Hamilton Gallery

Sligo

CURRICULUM VITAE

ONE MAN SHOWS
2021Jerber Fine Art, Glasgow
2018Positive Masculinity, Maison Depoivre, Picton, Ontario
2017Seduced by the Smell of Paint, Oriel Gallery, Dublin
2016Stop It! I love it! 14 Clareville Street, Kensington, London
2014From Brazil to Ballinaskelligs (with Phoebe Cope), Origin Gallery Dublin
2014Galerie Instituto Volusiano, Sao Paulo
2012/3Spitalfields Gallery, London
2012Jacques Lamy Gallery, Dallas Texas.
2011Irish American Heritage Arts Centre, Chicago
2011National Arts Club, Gramercy Park, New York
2008Castillo Galleazza, Bologna,
2007Oliver Gormley Gallery, Dublin
2006M.A. Show, City and Guilds School of Art, London
2006Leinster Gallery, Dublin
2005Bold Gallery, Galway
2005Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin
2004Jacques Lamy Gallery,Dallas
2002/3Walton Gallery, London
2003Edinburgh Featival, Old Bakehouse Gallery
2002Dean Corbett Studio, Dallas (Digital Exhibition)
2001Pecanins Gallery, Mexico City
1998-99Butler Gallery, Kilkenny
1985-98Solomon Gallery Dublin
1998Arthouse, Templebar, Dublin
1996-97London Contemporary Art Fair
1995Park Walk Gallery, London
1993Wexford Arts Centre
1993Swiss Credit Bank Invitational, Zurich
1992Hanne Brehm Gallery, Zurich
1991Kerlin Gallery, Belfast
1991Wooster Gallery, New York
1982Tulfarris Gallery, Blessington, Co. Wicklow
1980Alliance Francaise, Dublin
1979Peacock Theatre, Dublin

EDUCATION
2017Taste of Cherry 2017/8 Karaj, Iran
2013/4Instituto Volusiano, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2012Residency at Point B, Brooklyn, New York
2010Residency Edvard Munch Studio, Ekely Oslo
2009Residency Zhang Xiaotao Studio, Beijing
2006M.A. City & Guilds School of Art, London
1974-77Chelsea School of Art, (London Certificate in Art and Design)
1972-74Sir John Cass School of Art, Whitechapel, London
1970National College of Art and Design, Dublin

AWARDS
2013Shortlisted for Sky Portrait Artist of the year, Irl/UK
2011 Imagine Ireland Sponsorship to New York, National Arts Club of America
2011IBAM, Irish American Heritage Center, Chicago
2001Grant for Mexican Exhibition by Dept. of Foreign Affairs, Dublin
1997-98Trocaire Artist in Residence, Central America
1994-95Trocaire Artist in Residence, Somalia (Arts Council Travel Bursary)
1994Sunday Times Sponsorship to Somalia
1994Galtee Deercare, Mitchelstown, Co. Cork
1994James Adams Award for Artist with Potential
19871st Prize in ‘Drawing the Line’ Competition (An Bord Gais)
1982French Government Grant to Aix-en-Province
1974Spanish Govt. Grant (from London) to Madrid and Segovia
2013Shortlisted for Sky Portrait Artist of the year, Irl/UK

SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2020Jerber Fine Art, Glasgow
2019Jerber Fine Art, Glasgow
2019British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery with Jerber Fine Art
2019Arebyte Studio, London City Island E14
2018Naked Truth, Crawford Gallery, Cork
2018Purple Onion Gallery & Restaurant, Tarmonbarry, Co Longford
2018Carlow Arts Festival, Bernard Jennings, Carlow
2017R A of Arts in Yorkshire, Zillah Bell Gallery, Thirsk, Yorkshire
2017RHA Summer Exhibition, invitee
2016/7Royal Academy Summer Show, London
2016/7Oriel Gallery, Dublin (also 2016)
2016/7I am of Ireland, Ballycrompane, Clashmore, Co Waterford
2016Struggle, Sanwei Arts centre, Shanghai
2016Birth of a Nation, Ning Space, Beijung
2014/8Shankill Castle, Paulstown (Kilkenny Arts Festival)
2013Pumphouse Gallery, Battersea, London
2013 Source Arts Centre Thurles, Co Tipperary
2013 Artists of the Pageant, Turner’s House, Twickenham
2013 Thames Festival Oxo Tower Wharf, London
2013 Enjoy Art 2013, Taichung, Taiwan
2013 ArtistsItaliani e Non 2, Soncino, Italy
2013 Creativa 2013, “Clark’s Collection”Casa del Mantegna,Bologna
2013 “Artists of the Pageant”, JWM Turner’s House, Sandycombe Lodge,Twickenham
2013 “Enjoying Art” 1st Show of British & Irish Artists, Taichung, Taiwan
2011 Kettle’s Yard at “Found”, Brompron garage, North Tce., Kensington
2011 Bankside Gallery, Artichoke Printmakers, Bankside, London
2011 Oliver Gormley Gallery, Dublin
2008CUC Building, Novas, Liverpool
2008Adopted Art, Cafe Royal, London
2007Solomon Gallery
2004Dallas Museum of Art, Beaux Arts Ball
1999Galerie Thorigny, Paris
1998Walker Art Gallery, Harrogate
1997Coleurs du Temps, St. Paul de Vence
1995John Martin of London
1994Roger Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow; Thompson Gallery, London
1993Bronte Contemporary Art, Boston and Florida
1993Kenny Art Gallery, Galway
1992Pyms Gallery, London
1992Eigse Festival, Carlow; Cork Arts Society
1991Boyle Arts Festival, Co. Roscommon
1990Images from Ireland, Brussels
1990Figurative Image, Dublin
1989Mistral Gallery, London
1987/90Claremorris Open, Co. Mayo
1987R.H.A. Banquet Show, Dublin, invited by Michael O’Dea
1987Royal Hospital Kilmainham , Dublin (IMMA) ‘Kilkenny Nine’
1987Odette Gilbert Gallery, London

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
2019Under StARTers Orders, Save the Children and Disabled Jockey Fund at the Curragh Catalogue
2018The Times, Scotland Elizabeth Cope Compass Gallery, Glasgow by Giles Sutherland, October 5th
2017Hares on the March, Jack & Jill Fund
2017RHA Catalogue invitee Published RHA
2017Compendium, Eleven Spitalfields Able De Coker, Antwerp, Belgium
2017Elizabeth Cope Seduced by the Smell of Paint (Gandon Editions, Kinsale)
2016Hares on the March (Jack & Jull Foundation, Dublin)
2014Clemency Emmet, Fireseed (Arlen House) Illustrated
2014Alannah Hopkin, “Wintr in Brazil”, irish Arts review, Autumn
2011Artnet, on line magazine, review by Ilka Scobie
2010Eigse Carlow Arts Festival Retrospective 1979-2010
2010Robert O’Byrne, Dictionary of Living Irish Artists (Plurabelle Publishing, Dublin)
2008Sandra Gibson, Fis 2008 review, Nerve, Liverpool
1999Aidan Dunne, ‘The Artist as Witness’ irish times
1997Aidan Dunne ‘Elizabeth Cope in Central America’, Social & Personal
1995Clare Henry, ‘Out of Africa’ Glasgow Herald
1995Aidan Dunne, Sunday Tribune
1994John Burns, Sunday Times
1993Teresa Besenfelder, ‘Ganz und gar Keine Irin’ Zurich 2
1990Hilary Pyle, Irish Times
1989Scothanna Geala (Coisceim), illustrated
1988Niall McMonagle, ‘Painting in the Midst of Chaos’, Irish Times
1988 Marina Vaizey, Sunday Times
1982Brian Fallon, Irish Times
1980Marc Raynaud, Contact Magazine

SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Allied Investment Bank
Allied Irish Bank (London & Dublin)
A & L Goodbody
Bank of Ireland
Hotel Conrad
Behaviour & Attitudes
Contemporary Irish Art Society
Lombard & Ulster Bank
Limerick University (Self-Portrait Collection)
Hibernian Life

CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Aguilar Associates, Fort Worth, TX, IBEC, Jury’s Hotel, Delta Airlines, Kelly’s Hotel, Rosslare, Ketchum, Washington DC., Kildare Street& University Club, Lord Bagenal Carlow, Manley & O’Reilly, Social Services Carlow, Stokes Kennedy Crowley, Rachel Treacy,