Find Something You Love and Paint It – A Review of Cody McEvoy’s Rectify Her, Regulate Her

A recent graduate of South East Technological University, Cody McEvoy has been making all the right moves in the pursuit of a career as an artist….

Since finishing her BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 2025, she has been long listed for the prestigious RDS Visual Arts Awards, and this year she was awarded what was originally a twelve-month residency at The Presentation Arts Centre, Enniscorthy.

Due to its success, the residency has now been extended to twenty-four months to allow more in-depth support for artists following a solo exhibition.

McEvoy works mainly with the medium of oil paint and explores her own lived experience, particularly that of her upbringing in the motorcycling world. Rectify Her, Regulate Her, McEvoy’s first solo show, forms part of the Residency Programme. Thoughtfully curated by Lisa Byrne, the show presents a rounded view of the motorcyclist – specifically the female motorcyclist. The works are small to medium in scale. There is a precision among the pieces without any indication of rigidity. The bikes, structures typically associated with a manufactured hardness, are rendered fluidly and gently with blocks of bright colour.

Commenting on her choice of subject matter, McEvoy explains:

“It’s been a subject matter I’ve wanted to explore for a long time, and my time as a resident in Presentation has granted me the space to grow my skill and put time into this body of work,” she told Wexford Weekly.

The most interesting pieces show a softness in the handling of oil paint. There is an element of care present in the work – real time has been spent with the subject matter. The work of David Hockney is never far from my mind these days, but the sentiment of his series of Dog Paintings leapt to the forefront upon seeing McEvoy’s works.

Hockney, who painted his dachshunds, Stanley and Boodgie, between 1993 and 1995, did so as a means to find comfort and channel love during the grief of the AIDS crisis. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he clarified: “The subject wasn’t dogs, but my love of the little creatures.”

This is the perspective I was reminded of as I viewed McEvoy’s collection of motorcycles at the exhibition opening. Her undivided attention to the motorcycle structures, as well as the smaller scale of some of the works, showed a real delicacy that would not usually be associated with this subject matter.

Explaining the importance of this series, McEvoy told Wexford Weekly that:

“It served as a chance to express my passion, obsession, or infatuation with motorcycles. To me they are such incredible machines, and I don’t know if I could ever see myself without one,” she said.

There is a sense of candid humanity in the objects portrayed. What an act of devotion this subconscious responsibility is – to portray the loved thing in its purest light.

So, paint those you love. Go to see Rectify Her, Regulate Her at The Presentation Centre the next time you are in Enniscorthy. It runs until 29th August. You do not need to be a motorcycle enthusiast to enjoy, and be moved by, the work of Cody McEvoy. You will find that the subject is not motorcycles, but her love of the creatures.