FOR MORE than 30 years, Laura Vecchi Ford taught Italian at NUI Galway, but for much longer than that she has been a visual artist.
Born in Italy in 1939, Vecchi Ford studied art at the Brera Academy in Milan and had her first solo exhibition in 1967. It was also in the late sixties she came to the attention of that celebrated patron of the arts, Peggy Guggenheim, and this is when she also moved to Galway to teach in the Italian Department of what was then UCG.
Though pursuing an academic career, visual art has remained central in her life. She continued to make etchings, engravings, drawings, and paintings, presenting many exhibitions in Ireland, Britain, and Italy.
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Now comes her latest exhibition, The West is Awake, which is currently running at The Kingshill Gallery, 117 Upper Salthill, and which features paintings from the last six decades, including portraits of Umberto Eco, who she knew in Italy; friend and campaigner Margaretta D’Arcy; artist Sean McSweeney; and musician Micky Finn.
The exhibition is part of the Galway Fringe Festival 2021 and runs until September 25. Gallery opening times are 11am to 4pm.
