The work of Irene Kopelman is built on a long-term engagement with ecological issues and an interest in the parallels between the practices of science and art. Looking for points of convergence between the two fields is one of the focal points of her work. Ecological concerns are intertwined with her strong belief in drawing as a tool for understanding. She develops a close visual engagement with subject matter, questioning and exploring how drawing can approach these topics. She considers her work as forms of embodied knowledge: the image, together with the process that precedes it, provides knowledge of a given environment. These images are also the embodiment of the methodologies and systems that we use to generate knowledge and to make it visible, creating her own systems of representation through art making.
Irene Kopelman
Córdoba, Argentina, 1974. Lives and works in Amsterdam.
Looking at Trees | Watercolor on paper | 57.5 x 76.5 cm | 2008
77 Colors of a Volcanic Landscape |Oil on canvas | 200 x 200 x 2 cm | 2016
«Over the past decade, she has accompanied many field expeditions with scientific researchers and spent time in numerous research labs, accumulating a wealth of knowledge about our natural environments.»
Over the past decade, she has accompanied many field expeditions with scientific researchers and spent time in numerous research labs, accumulating a wealth of knowledge about our natural environments and the intricate ecological processes of a variety of geographies. Her recent works have explored scale and colour through topics including water, glaciers and plankton. While a large part of her practice involves research, Irene Kopelman equally value the knowledge imbedded in the materiality of the work, with which she continually experiment.
Her field drawings, photographs and notes from many conversations with scientists, become part of her exhibitions and publications (the series Notes on Representation). They have also become the foundation of her studio practice where these ideas and concepts form the source material for large-scale paintings, sculptures and graphic installations. Her approach to artistic practice has steered her towards an interdisciplinary practice that over time has come to include public workshops, to actively reflect on and engage audiences in the dialogue between the fields of art and science.
Irene Kopelman has undertaken residences at Laurenz Haus Foundation, Basel, Switzerland; Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten/Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science , Netherlands. Selected solo exhibitions: “Quaternary Unfolded”, Jocelyn Wolff, Paris, France (2021) ; “A tiny world and countless compositions in it”, Kranenburg, Bergen, Norway (2020) ; “Puntos Cardinales”, LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2019) ; “Irene Kopelman”, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands (2018) ; “On-Growing Intertwined”, knotted, coiled Landscapes, MAMAC, Nice, France (2018) ; “On Glaciers and Avalanches”, Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich, Switzerland (2018) ; “Indexing Water”, Kunsthalle Lissabon, Lisbon, Portugal (2017) ; “On Glaciers and Avalanches”, CRAC Alsace, Altkirch, France (2017) ; “77 Colours of a Volcanic Landscape”, FIAC, Grand Palais, Paris, France (2016) ; “On Glaciers and Avalanches”, LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2016). Irene Kopelman has been part of multiple group exhibitions such as: “#TodosSomosHonolulu”, LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2020) ; “Portadores de Sentido”, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2019) ; “Cosmogonies, au gre des elements”, MAMAC, Nice, France (2018) ; “Nomadic Mountains”, SCHUNCK, Heerlen, Netherlands (2018) ; VIII Bienal de Arte de Lanzarote, Lanzarote, Spain (2015).
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