Pamela Irving

Pamela Irving
Born Pamela Anne Irving
1960
Melbourne, Australia
Nationality AustraliaAustralian
Education Melbourne State College, Melbourne College of Advanced Education
Known for Ceramics, Sculpture, Mosaics, Printmaking, Etching
Notable work Larry La Trobe (1992, 1996)
Awards Nominated Kamel Kiln Award (1981)
Ceramic Prize City of Box Hill (1985)
Ceramic Prize City of Footscray (1985)
Pat Corrigan Artists grant(1991)
Australia Day Ceramic Award Shaepparton Art Gallery (1994)
Website
Pamela Irving

Pamela Irving (born 1960) is a Australian visual artist specialising in bronze, ceramic and mosaic sculptures as well as printmaking and copper etchings.[1] In addition to her extensive art work, Irving has lectured in art and ceramics at Monash University, the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the Chisholm Institute of Technology.[2] She also worked as an art critic for the Geelong Advertiser and was a councillor on the Craft Council of Victoria.[3]

Education

Born in Victoria, Australia, Irving was formally educated at the Melbourne State College (1979–1982) where she undertook a Bachelor of Education (Art/Craft) and she completed a Master of Arts degree by research at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. Supervised by Professor Noel John Flood,(ceramicist and the Head of Ceramics Department), Irving was one of the first two candidates to be approved to undertake the Master of Arts Degree in Visual Arts in what was, at that time, the Melbourne CAE.[4]

Irving's thesis for her Master's degree examined 'the reasons and meaning behind the presence and mythology imagery in the works of Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and Mirka Mora (those artists being nominated because of the relevance to my own work)'.[5]

Style and influences

Pascoe observes that Irving's work is derived from 'a mixture of personal experience, myth and virulent imagination'.[6] Hammond has described Irving's early ceramic work as 'humorous, figurative and cheerfully contemptuous of pottery traditions.[7]

Irving's early art was influenced by artists including Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Noel Connihan, Mirka Mora, Sidney Nolan[8] and John Perceval. In recent years, Irving has been influenced ″by the honest and direct expressiveness of ‘outsider art’ (the art of self-taught or ‘naive artists’) and the craft of ‘memoryware’″[9] Significantly, this interest grew following Irving's visit to Nek Chand's Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India.[10]

Notable work

The second bronze statue of Larry La Trobe, Melbourne City Square, created by Pamela Irving

Irving's most famous work is the bronze sculpture of Larry La Trobe, commissioned in 1992 as a part of the Swanston Street redevelopment in Melbourne,[11] and stolen by a thief or thieves unknown during 1995. The resulting media attention rallied significant public support for the recovery of the sculpture. Although never recovered, the statue was recast by the foundry owner, Peter Kolliner, with some minor changes by Irving and was replaced in September 1996. The Larry sculpture is located at the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street, Melbourne.

Professional associations

Active in mosaic art in Australia, Irving served as a councillor on the Craft Council of Victoria during the 1980s and became Vice-President of the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand in 2007.[12]

Exhibitions

Between 1981 and 2003, Irving took part in 18 solo exhibitions, 11 joint exhibitions and more than 80 group exhibitions.

Collections

Irving's work is held in the following collections:

Museums and galleries

Corporate and private collections

School collections

Awards and grants

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ National Association for the Visual Arts (Australia). 1995, Who's who of Australian visual artists D.W. Thorpe in association with National Association for the Visual Arts, Port Melbourne, Vic. p.148
  2. ↑ Pamela Irving
  3. ↑ Hawthorne, Ian. & Reid, John, 1990, 'One man's eye : a decade of people Geelong 1980-1990', Ian Hawthorne; edited by John Reid, Joval Publications, Bacchus Marsh, Vic. pp.124-125)
  4. ↑ Hawthorne, Ian. & Reid, John, 1990, 'One man's eye : a decade of people Geelong 1980-1990', Ian Hawthorne; edited by John Reid, Joval Publications, Bacchus Marsh, Vic. p.124)
  5. ↑ Irving, Pamela., 'Images of Angels', Pottery in Australia, February 1987, Vol.26 No.1., p.47
  6. ↑ Pascoe, Joseph., Pamela Irving: Decade of images, Ceramics; Art and Perception, No 37, 1999, p.39
  7. ↑ Hammond, Victoria., City of Whitehorse collection, Ceramics Art and Perception, No 50, 2002, p.81
  8. ↑ Kinneally, Susan, Pamela Irving: Happy as Larry - ceramics, mosaics, printmaking, CD-ROM, Susan Kinneally and Pamela Irving, 2008
  9. ↑ Kinneally, Susan, Pamela Irving: Happy as Larry - ceramics, mosaics, printmaking, CD-ROM, Susan Kinneally and Pamela Irving, 2008
  10. ↑ Kinneally, Susan, Pamela Irving: Happy as Larry - ceramics, mosaics, printmaking, CD-ROM, Susan Kinneally and Pamela Irving, 2008
  11. ↑ Hedger, Michael. 1995, Public sculpture in Australia / Michael Hedger, Craftsman House, G+B Arts International, Roseville East, N.S.W. p.102
  12. ↑ Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand Executive Committee (1 April 2009)

References

External links