CCA Introducing: Vera Ryklova

On Sunday 14 November 2021 from 10am, follow artist Vera Ryklova as she takes over our Instagram and Twitter pages to share her work and research for CCA Introducing 2021. CCA Introducing is a series of 24 hour social media takeovers by emerging artists. Each artist has been nominated by an artist or curator connected to CCA. The recommendation to invite Vera to participate in CCA Introducing came from artist Susan MacWilliam, who was part of CCA Derry~Londonderry's We know more than we can tell group exhibition.

Vera Ryklova is a visual artist living in Dublin. She works in lens-based media and has been developing her practice over the past six years.

In 2020 Vera was one of five Irish Talents that represented PhotoIreland at FUTURES, a Europe-based platform for photography. In 2017 she won the Hotron Art Works Prize for work by a recent graduate and in 2016 she was shortlisted for the Hennessy Portrait Prize, which exhibited at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Vera presented three solo exhibitions. In 2021 at Custom House Studios + Gallery (Westport) and Cultúrlann Mc Adam Ó Fiaich (Belfast), and in 2018 at Triskel Arts Centre (Cork). She has also exhibited in several group exhibitions held in Ireland and the UK, including the FiLiA Feminist Conference (London, Menchaster) and curated two group exhibition that she presented in Dublin (2015, 2017).

Her work has been featured in photography journals and art publications and is included in the arts collections of Trinity College Dublin and the Arts Council of Ireland.

In her practice Vera explores the concept of the self and the events that impact its social construction. She performs to the lens and produces photographic and video self-portraits, using the form of the series. Self-portraiture is not necessarily a genre she has focused on; it rather is the method she currently employs to explore her subject. She uses the camera as a distancing device that may allow her to experience a state of catharsis. The link between the artistic execution and the liberating emotional discharge is also at the centre of her interest.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Vera was brought to Ireland on a journey of personal discovery and since 2007 she has been living and working here. She recently completed an MA in Art and Research Collaboration at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Dún Laoghaire. In 2015 she graduated from the same Institute with a BA (Hons) in Photography.