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.

END