Freedom Holidays in The Rudolphine Painting

Exhibiting internationally since the late 1980s, Irene Hanenbergh has amassed a large body of work which the artist describes as ‘liminal portals’ into other worlds, and ‘windows of longing’, suggesting psychological and physical spaces that lie just beyond our grasp. Her evocative oil paintings are personal and contemporary renderings of the sublime in which scenes of primordial forests, lakes, mountains and oceans morph in and out of formation, infused with influences of the baroque, romanticism, and marginal fantasy genres. Exploring the slippage between contemporary and historic landscape painting, key styles and traditions including folk art, mystic and visionary practices, (faux) political histories and cults have been erased, repainted and spiritually charged, creating fantastical and otherworldly shifts as brushstrokes collide with impossible foliage, dark shadows and the spectre of history. Her works do not rely on narrative structures for the formation of content; rather they seduce or just invite the viewer to become immersed in another world, another time, another sensation. Irene completed a Master of Fine Arts by Research at the Victorian College of the Arts (The University of Melbourne) in 2010. She also holds a BFA (Hons) in Painting and Sculpture from The Academy of Fine Arts Minerva (1988, The Netherlands), a BFA (Hons) in Printmaking, from The Athens School of Fine Arts (1995, Greece) followed by 2 year Postgraduate Research at the same academy. Additionally she completed a Post Graduate Program at The Royal College of Art (1992, London). Intermittently over the last 25 years, she has spent considerable time on artist residencies & for the purpose of exhibitions, in various locations across Europe, Asia and the USA (NYC). Selected solo exhibitions include Libertine, Celestine, Neon Parc, Melbourne, 2016; House of Dandelion & Lohr (outperformance), Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide 2015; Argyle Dreaming (1863), Blackart projects, Chalkhorse, Sydney 2015; Dada-Roman (4711), Caves Gallery, Melbourne 2015; Recent selected group exhibitions include Painting. More Painting, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne 2016; Lurid Beauty, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2015; Spring 1883, Melbourne, 2014 and 2016, Spring 1883, Sydney, 2015 and 2016.