Katherine Boucher Beug, originally from Princeton, New Jersey has been working from her studio in West Cork since 1971.

KBB completed a BA in English and Fine Art from Northwestern University in 1969 before going on to study two more years in Hamburg, Germany.

The foundations of her work were established early; a thorough study of Joseph Alber’s ‘Interaction of Colour,’ a passionate dedication to drawing and consistent experimentation in private journals through writing, drawing, and collage. She often shows her journals as part of her solo shows, valuing the ‘raw,’ (the work behind the work) at least as much as the ‘cooked.’

A love of Artist Books led to her publishing ‘Flowers: the Book’ in 2021. In the introduction to this book, Gemma Tipton says,
“Looking at the flower paintings and drawings is very much like a conversation with the the artist herself. You find unexpected ideas, sudden powerful thoughts, a confluence of delicacy and strength. You come away seeing the world in a way that is exciting and new. A window has been opened, and you wonder why you never saw that view before.”

Surrounded by the West Cork landscape, near the sea, and working in the garden has had a constant though not always literal influence on her perception, her aesthetic and all aspects of the work.

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions

2023
‘Radharc’ Crawford Municipal Gallery
Cork
‘Summer Show’ Lavitt Gallery
Cork
‘Land’ Grilse Gallery
Killorglin

2022
RHA, Dublin,
‘West Cork Artists’ Catherine Hammond,
Bantry
Boyle Arts Festival
‘Clay and Canvas’
Lavit Gallery

2021
‘Flowers: The Project’, Solo Exhibition
Lavit Gallery, Cork

2020
‘Twelve Flower Paintings’
Oliver Sears, Dublin
Publication of ‘Flowers’ the Book
Boyle Arts Festival

2019
‘In Living Memory’/OPW
Oliver Sears
Boyle Arts Festival
‘Rear Window’  
London
curator: Brian Kennedy

2018
‘Small Works’
Lavit Gallery, Cork

2017
‘Take Five’
The Mill, Kinsale

2015
‘Equations’, Solo Exhibition
Oliver Sears Gallery

2014
‘Sing Brother Sing’, Solo Exhibition
Catherine Hammond Gallery

2011
‘Some Time’, Solo Exhibition
Oliver Sears Gallery, Dublin

2010
Two-Person Exhibition
Olcote Gallery/Kinsale Arts Week

2006
Two-Person Exhibition with Janet Mullarny
Fenton Gallery, Cork

2003
‘Telemachus’, Solo Exhibition
Fenton Gallery, Cork

1999
‘Whose Equation’, Solo Exhibition
West Cork Arts Centre, Skibbereen
Siamsa Tire, Tralee

1994
‘Thought Before Song’, Solo Exhibition
Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork
Project Arts Centre, Dublin
Model Arts Centre, Sligo

Selected Group Exhibitions and Projects 

1990
Solo Exhibition
Triskel Arts Centre

1989
Solo Exhibition
Boole Library, UCC

1979
Triskel Arts Centre

1973
Lavitt Quay Gallery

2013
The Poetry Project, (www.thepoetryproject.ie)
animation ‘Begin’

2012
RADHARC
Six Contemporary Painters from Ireland
Irish Historical Society, NYC

2012
Oliver Sears Gallery, ‘Hibernation’
Catherine Hammond Gallery, Glengariff

2011
‘The Horse Show’, RHA, Dublin
RHA annual show (Invited)
‘Field of Vision’, Glucksman Gallery, Cork

2010
Lavitt Gallery

2009
RHA annual show (Invited)

2002
An Leabhar Mor, The Great Book Of Gaelic

2001
Art Trail, Invited Artist
The Fenton Gallery, ‘Four Series’

1999
New Hampshire Fine Arts, selected Ballinglen fellow Lavitt Gallery ‘Take Five’

1998
National Gallery of Ireland ‘Art intoArt’
Art Trail, Invited Artist
Sciop ‘98, selected by hugh Mullholland
‘Talking about Artist’s Sketchbooks’ Cork County Library Touring Exhibition
‘Iontas’ Sligo Small Art
Triskel Arts Centre Emmerging Artists
Wandsford Quay Print Project

1997
RHA Gallagher Gallery, Dublin ‘Landscape and Recollection; The Ballinglen Experience’

1994
Poitiers, France ‘Couleurs d’Europe’

1993
Exhibition of Contemporary Irish Art in Poland Eurothreshold, Millstreet

1992
Cork Airport Exhibition

1991
Triskel Arts Centre ‘Images of Ourselves’

1985
Crawford Municipal Gallery C.A.N. Cork Art Now

Theatre Work
Set and Costume Design

The Granary Theatre

2001                                           
‘Sleepwalking’
(selected works by Franz Kafka) Directed by Regina Crowley

1988
‘The Shoemaker’s Prodigeous Wife’ by F G Lorca Directed by Steven Gale

1987
‘The Bacchae’ by Euripedes

Performance

2001
Performance of the artist’s text,
‘The Gambler’ with Jack Healy

Books

2021
‘Flowers:The Book’

2004
Drawings for Matthew Geden’s translations of Apollinaire

2000
Cork Harbor Artist’s Book Commision
‘From Scrap’

1994
Thought Before Song artist book with lithographs and texts by the artist

Residencies 

1999
Cill Rialig

1997 and 2010
Ballinglen Arts Foundation

1994
Poitier, France
‘Couleurs D’europe

Curatorial Work

2009
Manifest, Kinsale Arts Week

2006
The Raw Not The Cooked, Fenton Gallery

Public Collections

— National Gallery of Ireland
— The Arts Council Collection
— TCD Collection, Dublin
— Bank of Ireland Collection
— Allied Irish Bank Collection
— Crawford Municipal Gallery
— University College Cork
— Cork County Council Collection

Artist’s Book Collections

Princeton University Library

NCAD Library, Dublin

Selected Exhibition Catalogues and Reviews 

Mahon, Derek  Introduction Equations catalogue  

MacMonagle, Niall ‘What Lies Beneath’ Sunday Independent 2020

Allen, Jo, ‘Four Series’, CIRCA No. 94, winter 2000

Allen, Jo, ‘Talking about Artist’s Sketchbooks’, CIRCA No. 86, winter 1998

Fenton, Nuala, ‘Whose Equation’ — From a Conversation with the Artist, catalogue for ‘Whose Equation’, West Cork Arts, 5/99

Dunne, Aidan, The Sunday Tribune, 17/7/9

Finlay, Sarah, ‘One Woman’s Vernacular’, Exhibition Catalogue for ‘Thought Before Song’ touring Exhibition 1994

Finlay, Sarah, Landscape and Recollection, exhibition catalogue, 1997

Hopkin, Allanah, ‘Motion Between Straight Lines’, The Examiner, 8/12/98

Hopkin, Allanah, ‘Whose Equation’, Sunday Times, 6/6/99

O’Kelly, Hillary, ‘Katherine Beug’, Circa, No., winter 1994

Ryan, Vera, ‘Talking About Artist’s Sketchbooks’, Catalogue, Interview with the artist, 6/98