Cork In 50 Artworks, No 43: Maud Cotter’s ‘matter of fact’

Cotter made the work over the space of a year at the National Sculpture Factory, a facility she helped found in the 1970s

Cork artist Maud Cotter showing her work ‘matter of fact’ to Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu at the Hugh Lane Gallery. Picture: Naoise Culhane

Maud Cotter’s ‘matter of fact’ was shown as part of the Cork artist’s solo exhibition ‘a consequence of – a dappled world’ at Dublin City Gallery: The Hugh Lane in June 2021. The work was then acquired for the Hugh Lane’s permanent collection, and will shortly tour to two venues in America, in New York and Jacksonville, Florida.

Cotter made the work over the space of a year at the National Sculpture Factory on Albert Road in Cork, the facility she founded with fellow artists Eilís O’Connell and Vivienne Roche in 1989. “We were classmates in art college,’ she says. “Initially it was us three, and then we broadened it out and invited Danny McCarthy to become involved as well. The energy of so many other people has kept the place going all these years; it’s still there, and still incredibly vibrant.”