b. 1995 — Naarm / Melbourne, Australia
About
Maya Irving's work explores catharsis through an embodied, performative process. Each piece begins as an intuitive call-and-response — an internal choreography that unlocks emotions held within the body. Through movement, gesture, and play, these sensations are mapped across both canvas and physical form. Irving works from the belief that intuition holds an intelligence and compassion beyond the conscious mind and its doubt.
Her practice is shaped by a dialogue between body, memory, and environment. Beginning often with a blindfolded charcoal drawing as an "emotional map," her process allows internal states to surface without the mediation of sight. Mark-making emerges as an embodied knowing, where gesture precedes understanding and painting becomes both inquiry and communication beyond rational language.
In the studio, layers of line, repetition, erasure, and accumulation unfold in response to emotional impulses. Through this sustained process, the works become sites of negotiation between memory, sensation, and release — transforming internal intensity into visual form.
Influenced by nature and imagination, Irving's works operate as evolving emotional fields rather than fixed representations. They trace a movement from intensity toward resolution, translating private experience into a shared language of release, resilience, and catharsis.
Irving has presented solo exhibitions, live performances, and screenings across spaces including ACMI, Heide Museum of Modern Art, Backwoods Gallery, Beechworth Contemporary Gallery, Museum of Desire, and Strawberry Fields Festival. She recently presented her second solo exhibition with Backwoods Gallery, titled Feel Into.
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