Summer Body. Take a deep dive or take it easy: Painting exhibition and guided tour. Corina Irsik. Curator Ioana Marinescu

Summer Body. Take a deep dive or take it easy

Corina Irsik’s works are a mature and self-assured construct that she has reached after experiencing both attitudes herself. Initially, she immersed herself in her passion for art and began to paint with an unexpected energy and strength. Later, she realized that relaxation and introspection are elements that ground her and help her complete her artistic projects. 

Since art and reflection appeared on her radar, they have become vital, like a form of breathing, which she practices every day, nonstop and without the need for justification.

Corina’s work has two components. On one hand, it is gestural and spontaneous, where an image develops organically and transforms completely from one stage to another during execution. The second aspect is one where the work is generated from initial documentation, a fragment of reality that the artist has retained from the everyday and transposed onto canvas.

Corina immortalizes iconic portraits—such as those of Tilda Swinton, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the President of Portugal, and Monica Bellucci with her daughter Deva Cassel. However, her perspective on their images is plastic and articulated, rather than sweetened and flattering like a photograph. The paintings move from the iconic to the narrative: they capture the story behind the character and the dramatic tension that the artist formulates in the image. 

Corina Irsik’s digital exhibition explores an iconic and cinematic universe. Characters pose relaxed, reminiscent of a Jarmusch film (The Chi of Life), alongside dystopian and explosive landscapes (The Lost Oceans of Venus), a family riding bicycles (Family. Father. Wife and Daughter), and the search for a place to build a home—retreat (Tiny Home), all of which speak to conscious living. The artist captures a reality from which intuition erupts freely, but only after hours of hard work and preparation. 

Presented as a digital exhibition, Corina’s project has the power to raise questions and create debates. The works serve as a pretext for reflection and self-examination among participants and were selected with the intention of opening dialogue and presenting art as a special tool in the arsenal of both the artist and the coach, a dual role that underscores the versatility and complexity of Corina. 

Curator Ioana Marinescu