Micaela Irvine is an artist from Otago, now based in Papaioea. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Ilam School of Fine Arts in 2018 and has since exhibited her work in both Aotearoa and Australia.

Influenced by personal memories, Irvine’s process is driven by a push and pull between the literal and the abstract. She lets intuition guide her, allowing the source to dissolve and make way for universal emotions that others might recognize in themselves. These paintings, ultimately, aim to speak to the elusive nature of memory and to the universal experience of navigating life with its anxieties, desires, and moments of clarity.

The paintings in Ephemeral, Always delve into the fleeting, often intangible emotions tied to memories from early adulthood. They capture moments of both connection and solitude, and the quiet, persistent questions of belonging.