Irwin Beeckman b.1995 is a British painter born in London. For Irwin, art began as a process of reflection and self-comprehension, a way to rationalise traumatic events and the internal tangle of an overactive inner monologue. Through this practice he has found meaning in using art to amplify the voices and experiences of the unheard, the narratives in society that are often dismissed as mundane or inconvenient, those that tarnish the glossy facade of 21st century progress.
A fascination for the forgotten and discarded drives Irwin to find beauty in neglect and decay; he is particularly interested in people who by their own choices or circumstances live on the outskirts of society, who occupy social roles that others would prefer to ignore.
The ultimate goal for Irwin is to reach across social, and particularly class, boundaries and create for viewers an image of the world which amplifies a sense of shared human experience and degrades the structural prejudices which the modern world continues to fortify.
Irwin’s work is informed by his experience growing up on both ends of Britain’s class system, his early encounters with loss and his background in Anthropology.