Ireland Wisdom developed a body of work deeply shaped by her time living and working in Athens, drawing inspiration from Greek mythology while interpreting it through a contemporary lens. Her compositions create a mythic space where primal instincts and raw emotion unfold within seemingly serene, naturalistic settings. Wisdom pays homage to 18th-century European still-life traditions in the elements surrounding her central figures, while a series of delicate charcoal drawings adds a whimsical, narrative layer. Minimal yet expressive, these drawings convey stories with lightness and subtlety. Her influences range from Botticelli, Albrecht Dürer, and Velázquez to Dorothea Tanning. Some compositions evoke tarot cards or the flattened perspective of Byzantine mosaics, blending historical form with contemporary iconography. Her figures exist outside conventional time and place, rooted in classical painting yet distinctly modern. For Wisdom, painting is a practice of merging past and present, reviving traditional iconography and form to create landscapes where multiple eras coexist and new systems of meaning emerge. ...
