Walkthrough of recent exhibition of new mixed media works on canvas and board at 54 The Gallery.
Contemporary Art
Vanishing point – press release
VANISHING POINT
Exhibition of recent mixed media work by Italian contemporary artist Irma Irsara
Irma Irsara’s new exhibition at 54 The Gallery marks a return to painting for an artist whose practice has long embraced a multidisciplinary approach. Her work spans printmaking, artist’s books, installation, fibre art, and video, yet her focus remains on issues relating to the natural environment.
Vanishing Point features large-scale mixed-media paintings on canvas, combining oil and acrylic with elements such as marble sand and flecked gold leaf. A complementary series of smaller works on board incorporates materials recovered from the Thames foreshore at low tide.
In this body of work, the artist deliberately stepped away from the confines of a defined brief or subject matter, allowing the work to emerge organically. This open approach was shaped in part by personal life circumstances.
The resulting works explore themes of space, sky, distance, and the edge of perception – a point of no return. These visual elements become metaphors for loss and memory, with the vanishing point serving as a threshold between presence and absence, here and elsewhere.
Irsara’s art training began at age 13 at the Scuola d’Arte di Ortisei in Italy, followed by the Accademia di Belle Arti di Urbino and further part-time study at St Martin’s School of Art. In addition, she studied Country Care and Conservation at Capel Manor College in Enfield, north London.
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PRIVATE VIEW:
Tuesday 2 September 2025, 6pm – 9pm
ARTIST’S TALK:
Saturday 6 September 2025, 6pm – 8pm
VANISHING POINT
54 The gallery
54 Shepherd Market, London W1J 7QX
OPENING TIMES:
Monday – Saturday 11am – 8pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm
VANISHING POINT
VANISHING POINT is an exhibition of large-scale mixed-media works on canvas (oil and acrylic), incorporating marble sand and flecked gold leaf inspired by Persian techniques. In addition, a sequence of smaller works on board utilizes material retrieved from the Thames foreshore at low tide.
For this series, I wanted to free myself from the constraints of a precise topic or brief. The decision was shaped by certain circumstances in my personal life – I was also reading Tolstoy’s Art and Anarchy.
What emerged was space, sky, distance and the edge of perception – a point of no return. Connections were made with loss and memory, and the vanishing point became a threshold between here and elsewhere.
I reflected on how physical and emotional boundaries shift and evolve. I became preoccupied with transition, transformation, and captured moments where divisions dissolve.
VANISHING POINT
54 The gallery
54 Shepherd Market, London W1J 7QX
OPENING TIMES:
Monday – Saturday 11am – 8pm
Sunday 11am – 5pm
PRIVATE VIEW:
Tuesday 2 September 2025, 6pm – 9pm
ARTIST’S TALK (refreshments):
Saturday 6 September 2025, 6pm – 8pm
Gold Leaf
I’m currently working on a series of large canvasses. I’m interested in the technique used in Iranian mosques where gold leaf is sieved to create minute balls of gold. An Iranian restorer explained to me how she uses a restorer’s sieve to achieve the same results. In place of a sieve, I’ve used a strainer, using a soft paintbrush in a circular motion to create points of light.
This series of work will be shown later in the year (Sept) at 54 The Gallery in Mayfair – details to follow.
Tidal Traces
I’m very proud to be one of the featured artists for Totally Thames 2023 (Thames Festival)
This year, I’ll be exhibiting at The Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret throughout September. Tidal Traces draws attention to issues relating to the River Thames through a series of free-hanging installations, time-lapse video and family workshop. As well as a chance to see my current work, this is an opportunity to see an atmospheric museum that offers a unique insight into the history of medicine and surgery.
THE OLD OPERATING THEATRE MUSEUM
AND HERB GARRET
9a St Thomas St, London, SE1 9RY
In addition to the exhibition, I’ll be holding an evening screening of three video works with Q & A (19th September 6.00 – 8.15pm) where you will also have the opportunity to see the installation and museum for free. Tickets are limited for this so I would urge you to book only if you are definitely attending.
Entry to the exhibition at other times does not require booking but is subject to the museum’s normal admission charge.
OPENING TIMES AND DATES
Fri 1st – Sat 30th Sep 2023
10:30am – 5pm
Museum opening times:
Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 10.30am – 5.00pm (last admission is 4.15pm)
Drop-in family workshop:
Sunday 3 September 2023, 11am – 4.30pm
available with paid entry to the museum
TICKETS
Entry price to the museum for exhibition and workshop
Adult: £7.50
Concessions: £6.00
Child 6-16 years: £4.50
Children under 6 years: Free
Carers (with a full paying adult, concession or child ticket): Free
Family (2 adults, 2 children): £18.00, additional child, £1 each
Tidal Traces is supported by
Totally Thames, Team London Bridge and The Old Operating Theater and Herb Garret
TIDAL TRACES
The site-specific installation, continues my exploration of environmental issues, looking at material that finds its way into the Thames through natural phenomena and human activity, and the impact on the health of the river’s eco-system and the surrounding population. Recovering debris from the foreshore at various points along the river – plastic netting, nails, sand, silt, aged wood, charcoal, algae, bones – I create work using video, cyanography, chromatography and micrography to represent both the visible and the invisible, in particular micro fibre plastic and pharmaceutical contaminants.
Multiple elements make up the final site-specific installation which, in part, looks at the pharmaceutical contamination in the river alongside the healing qualities of the apothecary herbs featured in the Herb Garret at the museum.
TIME-LAPSE VIDEO
Metamorphosis (6 min 39 sec) 2019
River Net (9 min 10 sec) 2022
Silt (6 min 10 sec) 2023
The video works, each comprised of a series of time-lapse sequences, are a reflection on our impact on the Thames, including chemical and pharmaceutical discharge into the river leading to, among other things, antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
The work is intended to encourage debate on the effects of our actions on the natural balance and how we can re-establish and maintain healthy ecosystems. I’ve used a range of materials in the creation of the videos including silt, sand and algae, as well as man-made and organic objects retrieved from the foreshore at low tide. Tidal cycles are recreated using small-scale models, shot at 25 second intervals as liquid is slowly drained away. In other sequences, ice has been used to animate the forms. The soundtrack for all videos was created by Jonathan Lambert.
äres
I’m very pleased to be participating in äres, a exhibition of the work of fourteen women associated with the ladino-speaking area of Val Badia (BZ) in Italy.
It’s very significant for me to return to my roots to show my climate-change film Metamorphosis in this special venue, which is less than a kilometer from my family home in the Dolomites. The region has seen significant events in recent years due to climate change, including the collapse of the Marmalada glacier in 2022 or Storm Vaia in 2018 which caused massive damage to the mountain ecosystem, knocking down about eight million cubic metres of timber,
The exhibition is sponsored by EPL – Ert por i Ladins ODV as well as Raiffeisen, Provinia Autonoma di Bolzano and Hotel Pider.
The soundtrack for the video was created by musician and composer Jonathan Lambert.
14 artistes dla Val Badia é arjignades y s’inviëia
INTERVALS
Last day tomorrow (Sun 11 June) to see my exhibition at the Tabernacle Gallery in west London.
Open 10 am – 5pm (directions below)
Arte Polpa
Art at the Bridge #7
Tower Bridge (Engine Rooms) is showcasing the works of 15 female artists with the theme Building Bridges: The Female Perspective.
Celebrate female artistic endeavour with Tower Bridges ‘Art at the Bridge’exhibition. Now in its seventh iteration, this long-running exhibition in partnership with Southwark Arts Forum will display the works of 15 female artists as they explore the theme of‘Building Bridges: The Female Perspective’.
The exhibition aims to reflect upon female perspectives in the community, providing a platform for artists to express their ideas through a variety of media including paintings, etchings, video, photography and drawing.
Each of the artists have drawn inspiration from their own experiences and these artworks offer a striking contrast to the huge and beautifully maintained steam engines that surround them.
The exhibition runs from March 8 to July 31, 2016 and admission will be included in the entry for Tower Bridge Exhibition (Adults: £9; Children aged 5-15: £3.90; Concessions: £6.30; Family tickets from £14.10; Under 5s free). The experience visiting the high-level Walkways has now been bolstered with the addition of the new glass floor, which gives visitors a unique perspective of London 42 meters above the Thames. The nearest underground stations are London Bridge or Tower Hill.
Irma Irsara 