Pamela Irving

Pamela Irving (born 1960) is an Australian visual artist specialising in bronze, ceramic and mosaic sculptures as well as printmaking and copper etchings. In addition to her extensive art work, Irving has lectured in art and ceramics at Monash University, the Melbourne College of Advanced Education, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and the Chisholm Institute of Technology. She also worked as an art critic for the Geelong Advertiser and was a councillor on the Craft Council of Victoria.

Education
Born in Victoria, Australia, Irving was formally educated at the Melbourne State College (1979–1982) where she undertook a Bachelor of Education (Art/Craft) and she completed a Master of Arts degree by research at the Melbourne College of Advanced Education. Supervised by Professor Noel John Flood, (ceramicist and the Head of Ceramics Department), Irving was one of the first two candidates to be approved to undertake the Master of Arts Degree in Visual Arts in what was, at that time, the Melbourne CAE.

Irving's thesis for her master's degree examined 'the reasons and meaning behind the presence and mythology imagery in the works of Arthur Boyd, John Perceval and Mirka Mora (those artists being nominated because of the relevance to my own work)'.

Style and influences
Pascoe observes that Irving's work is derived from 'a mixture of personal experience, myth and virulent imagination'. Hammond has described Irving's early ceramic work as 'humorous, figurative and cheerfully contemptuous of pottery traditions.

Irving's early art was influenced by artists including Arthur Boyd, John Brack, Noel Connihan, Mirka Mora, Sidney Nolan and John Perceval. In recent years, Irving has been influenced ″by the honest and direct expressiveness of ‘outsider art’ (the art of self-taught or 'naive artists') and the craft of 'memoryware'″ Significantly, this interest grew following Irving's visit to Nek Chand's Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India.

Notable work
Irving's most famous work is the bronze sculpture of Larry La Trobe, commissioned in 1992 as a part of the Swanston Street redevelopment in Melbourne, and stolen by a thief or thieves unknown during 1995. The resulting media attention rallied significant public support for the recovery of the sculpture. Although never recovered, the statue was recast by the foundry owner, Peter Kolliner, with some minor changes by Irving and was replaced in September 1996. The Larry sculpture is located at the corner of Swanston Street and Collins Street, Melbourne.

Another notable commission is a large mosaic mural covering the Luna Palace building inside Melbourne's Luna Park. This large scale public artwork was commissioned for the centenary of Luna Park and took four years to complete.

Professional associations
Active in mosaic art in Australia, Irving served as a councilor on the Craft Council of Victoria during the 1980s and became vice-president of the Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand between 2007 - 2017.

Exhibitions
Between 1981 and 2018, Irving took part in 27 solo exhibitions, 16 joint exhibitions and more than 100 group exhibitions.

Collections
Irving's work is held in the following collections:

Museums and galleries

 * Museum Victoria
 * Collezione Mosaici Moderni
 * University of Melbourne including Trinity College
 * Deakin University
 * Australian Catholic University
 * Burnie College of TAFE, Tasmania
 * Artbank
 * Melbourne City Council
 * Shepparton Art Gallery
 * Bendigo Art Gallery
 * Colac Otway Shire
 * Footscray City Art Collection
 * Geelong Art Gallery
 * City of Glen Eira
 * City of Hume
 * Wangaratta Exhibitions Gallery
 * City of Whitehorse
 * City of Wyndham

Corporate and private collections

 * ANZ Bank
 * Art Horses Pty Ltd
 * L’Oreal Australia
 * Monash Medical Centre, Clayton
 * Murray Goulburn Co-operative
 * Northern Hospital
 * Pacific Shopping Centres
 * Polypacific
 * Sushi King
 * Yooralla Society
 * Zart Art
 * Private collections throughout Australia, the US and Hong Kong including that of Germaine Greer, Tuscany

School collections

 * Abbotsleigh School for Girls, Sydney
 * Camberwell Grammar School, Melbourne
 * Corio North High School
 * Grimwade House, Melbourne Grammar School
 * Kew High School
 * Lara Lake Primary School
 * Lilydale West Primary School
 * Lowther Hall Anglican Grammar School
 * Mentone Girls Grammar School, Melbourne
 * Mentone Grammar School, Melbourne
 * Merton Hall, Melbourne Girls Grammar School
 * Methodist Ladies' College (MLC), Melbourne
 * Scotch College, Melbourne
 * Star of the Sea College, Gardenvale
 * Tintern Girls' Grammar School, Melbourne
 * Wesley College, Melbourne (Elsternwick Campus)

Awards and grants

 * 1981 Nominated Kamel Kiln Award
 * 1985 Ceramic Prize, City of Box Hill
 * 1985 Ceramic Prize, City of Footscray
 * 1987 Ministry for the Arts and Ministry for Education Artist in Schools Project
 * 1988 Australia Council Grant To Develop a Body of Ceramic Work.
 * 1988 Ministry for Arts and Ministry for Education, Artist in Schools Project
 * 1989 Tasmanian Arts Council Grant-Artist in Residency, Tasmania
 * 1991 Pat Corrigan Artist Grant, N.A.V.A.
 * 1994 Winner, Australia Day Ceramic Award Shepparton Arts Centre.
 * 1995 City of Glen Eira Artist Award
 * 1999 Artist and Designers in Schools Grant, resident artist at Kew High School
 * 2005 Artist in School Grant, Ministry for the Arts and Education
 * 2010 Arts Victoria Grant
 * 2012 Keep Australia Beautiful Award, Community Action for mosaics at Patterson Station, Bentleigh
 * 2015 Cancer Council CEO Awards, Volunteer Group of the Year, Tuxedo Junction Committee
 * 2017 Arts Council Grant, Tasmania