Steven Irwin

Steven Irwin is a UK-based artist whose work examines the fragility and collapse of contemporary civilisation through layered photomontage, mixed media and sculptural assemblage. Drawing upon Vanitas traditions, his images explore decay, entropy and the impermanence of urban life.

Working with both analogue and digital processes — from scratched negatives, chemical staining and rusted surfaces to complex digital compositing — Irwin creates dystopian cityscapes where human figures dissolve into the architecture around them. These fractured environments reflect themes of surveillance, political control, overdeveloped cities, and the psychological impact of modern urban existence.

Series such as Slave New World, Black Sun and City of Lost Souls interrogate the tension between technological progress and societal disintegration, reimagining skylines and structures as monuments to both ambition and ruin. His more recent assemblages extend these concerns into physical space, incorporating corroded metal, industrial debris and found objects as contemporary Vanitas symbols.

Curator Adriana Marques (Rise Art) writes: “Irwin’s take on our dense urbanscapes reminds us that even bricks and mortar don’t last forever. These layered works test ...

BA Fine Art Cardiff College of Art.
Film Diploma London Film School.
MA Film Glamorgan University.

Recent Exhibitions and Media include:
2025, Urban Psyche Solo Show at Gallery X, UAE
2025, Urban Psyche at Xposure Exhibition, UAE
2022, Work Featured at Gubian Gallery, Portugal
2021, International Fine Arts Festival, Slovenia
2020, Street Art Guardian Media
2018, Portrait Wales, Little Man Gallery, Cardiff
2018, 3 New Works at Summer Show at Oriel Q Gallery
2018, Work in Urban Art Photographer at Rise Art
2017, Work featured in Art and Architecture Rise Art
2017, Land of Venus III, Saatchi Art Spring Catalogue
2017, Cosmopolis featured at Rise Art, London.
2016, Wild Fire featured in Evening Standard.
2016, Wild Flowers of London, featured in Guardian
2016, Shelter Cymru Art Auction.
2016 Eclipse, featured in Guardian Online
Penarth Pavilion Open Art Exhibition 2015
2015 Featured Artist at Rise Art
Neon Desert II featured in Florals & Plants Saatchi Art.
2015 Work featured in Guardian Online
2014 Featured in Pixelmania Guardian Online
2014 Oriel Q Gallery, Narberth, West Wales.
2013 MoMA Wales.
2012 Norwegian Church, Cardiff.
2012 The Gate, Cardiff.
2011 Oriel Ty Celf, Newport.
2010 City Museum, Swansea.
2009 The Gate, Cardiff
2008 Eistedfodd, Cardiff.
2007 Washington Gallery, Card...