Irene Imfeld, submitted artwork
Irene Imfeld
Visual Art
Berkeley
Irene Imfeld is an active member of the San Francisco Bay Area photo community: PhotoAlliance Board of Directors 2015-2018; Bay Area Photographers Collective 2009-2013; SFMOMA FotoForum 2009-2015; Berkeley Bridge Artists (Berkeley-Sakai Art Exchange) 2007-2014. She was co-owner of PHOTO, a gallery in Oakland, organizing and mounting over 50 exhibits 2010-2015. Selected curation at PHOTO: Journeys, curator and exhibitor with Kate Jordahl and Jack Fulton, 2015. Dream States with Jennifer Georgescu and Michael Garlington, 2015. Oakland and Beyond: A Sense of Place with five photographers, 2014. Into the Winter Night with four photographers, 2014. Timeless: The White Mountains with 15 photographers, 2013. Body Awareness with 11 photographers, 2012. Other curation: Touchstone, five diverse photographers working with monochrome landscape at Chung 24 Gallery, San Francisco, 2023. Co-curator at Photolab Gallery, Berkeley, 2016-2019. Irene won the Grand Prize in the Fauna competition, San Francisco, chosen by William Wegman. She participated in an art exchange trip to Japan and won the Soho Photo Gallery portfolio prize with a showing in New York. She received funded residencies at Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest and Joshua Tree Highlands Artist Residency. Solo exhibits at Chung 24 Gallery, and at Peninsula Museum, Bolinas Museum, and Fresno Art Museum, all in California. Her past experience includes 25 years as a commercial book designer, and working with textile arts.
Works
Irene Imfeld, submitted artwork
After a lifetime of involvement in photography and other arts, some of my work is abstract and some closely examines plant and animal life. Grounded in common reality and composed in camera, it has evolved with digital advances to become more visually complex. I mix manipulated images with representational ones, sometimes in handmade books, and I make 3D constructions. In recent work, emphasis on tonal alterations allows me to greatly transform my original photographs. Recombining in a non-linear way allows for additional iterations on images. Each composition receives individual changes and reworking (without any prerecorded scripts or AI). Although subjects remain somewhat recognizable, the final prints show a painterly quality leaning into abstraction and inviting mystery. I’ve always been attuned to nature around me, a sensitivity unknowingly nurtured growing up in a small midwestern town. The woods and creeks had a lasting impression on me. Over time, my priorities have changed from balancing the forms of the land to appreciating the chaos of the phenomenal world. Rather than visualizing the landscape, I collaborate with available natural elements (plants, water, and so on), first while capturing images and later working with them in the studio. The beauty of natural forces inspires me and I want my work to engage viewers and leave them wondering, to spark inquiry into the imagery.
