Article Excerpts

Irish Women of the World - Irish Times (March 2016)

Nuala Goodman - Artist

Milan-based, Dublin-born Nuala Goodman is an artist whose work straddles art and design. She studied painting at NCAD and after college moved to Milan where she worked with the founding father of Memphis, Ettore Sottsass, painting anything they asked her including a motorcycle and the inside of a silk nightgown.

She worked with other Italian household names, collaborating with Alessi on a series of painted boxes, while Evem, a watch she designed for Swatch, is now a collectors item.

Goodman collaborated with contemporary furniture company Moroso on an exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 2010. She painted portraits on the backs of an edition of 10 chairs designed by London-based James Howett – two now sit in U2’s Dublin offices.

While looking for a venue to show her Paintings From Milan series, she met with Daniela Ferretti, director of the Fortuny Museum in Venice, housed in the designer's palazzo. It was a lucky break that, at the time she didn't really recognise and almost turned down. "When I was offered 300sq metres of an exhibition space at the Fortuny Museum in Venice, my first response was to ask if I could think about it. There was a pause from Ferretti who advised not to think about it too long as the gallery was full for the next five years."

Is there a good piece of advice she was given along the way?

“When I was a student at NCAD, Nigel Rolfe, the performance artist, was a guest lecturer and one morning he took the class on a five-mile run. We lagged behind him all the way. When we got back he said, ’your life is 50 per cent mental and 50 per cent physical’. I’ve never forgotten it.”

What would she say to someone at the start of their career in this sector?

“Cultivate an inner stability that doesn’t depend on material rewards. You will hear a lot of nos. When I first moved to Italy I wasn’t that confident in myself as a person. It is something you can learn.”