Irene Watson

My work begins from attentive listening. It is shaped by a confessional register informed by long-term engagement with people navigating systems of protection and survival. These experiences influence how I think about vulnerability, care, and control, and how lived experience is often managed or made invisible. The paintings hold these pressures quietly, without illustration or narrative. Landscape functions within the work as a psychological space rather than a descriptive one. I am interested in what is lost when organic and random structures are ordered or contained, and how systems shape both people and environments. This tension between control and vulnerability informs the emotional tone of the work. My practice is grounded in abstraction, material process, and text-based visual language. Working with oil, pigment, wax, sand, and collage on canvas or linen, I build layered surfaces through accumulation and removal, allowing earlier marks to remain visible. Text appears as fragment rather than statement, suggesting presence and voice without resolution. Alongside painting, I produce artist books, experimental writing, and performance work that extend these concerns through parallel processes. Collaboration and co‑authoring are central to this practice and continues to shape my understanding of voice, agency, and representation.

Irene Watson ARTWORKS

Irene Watson LATEST NEWS

12 August 2026

Irene Watson

Irene Watson is a Scottish contemporary artist whose paintings combine abstraction with writing and a close attention to material. Her work is informed by long-term contact with people living within{...}

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Irene Watson EXHIBITIONS

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (Highlights)
artspace Scotland, Perth, UK
LINLEY, Pimlico, London, UK
The Meffan Institute, Forfar, UK
Crawford Centre, St Andrews, UK
Gallery 48, Dundee, UK
Drawings Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Angus Museums (Touring Show), Angus, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS ( Highlights)
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK
Scottish Society of Arts. UK
Glasgow Art Fair, UK
Gallery Fresh, London, UK
The Barbican, Plymouth, UK
British Lime Gallery, Santa Ana, Los Angeles, USA
Gregory Flint Gallery, New Zealand
Judith Anderson Gallery, New Zealand
Birnam Art Centre, Birnam, UK
Modern Artists Gallery, Reading, UK
Colinton Arts, Edinburgh, UK
Dundas Street Gallery, UK
INSTITUTIONAL, SITE-SPECIFIC & COMMISSIONED WORK (selected)
National Trust for Scotland – Crathes Castle
Aberdeen Shell HQ
Perth Prison & Saughton Prison – commissioned installations, DJCAD
Dundee Rep Theatre, co-authored screenprint installation
Ninewells Hospital (Child Psychiatric Unit) – large-scale commission
“Us and Them”, co-authored touring performance
St, Magdelenes Hill, Co-authored digital happenings, funded by the heritage lottery
“Furniture”, Co-Authored furniture making project with Homeless Women
“Jewels”, workshops with female streetworkers
“Let me Speak” workshops, over 10 years, with children identified by schools as having
behavioral problems
PUBLICATIONS & PRESS (SELECTED)
“Ag Ann And” 2026, Published by Sutteille and Swag ( in progress)
“Wife, Witch, Whore” by Dr Helen Gorrill, Extract by Irene Watson, published (in progress) by
Bloomsbury
Artist Close Up (2025)
New Art Project (2025)
WALLPAPER* Magazine (2005)
“The Old Manse” 2022, Published by Sutteille and Swag
“Warm Baskets” 2024, Hand Typeset, Published by Sutteille and Swag
“The. Curlew” limited edition of 20 linocut zines
PRACTICE
Abstract painting, text-based visual language, installation, and artist publishing. Works
range from intimate panels to large-scale triptychs and modular installations, often
accompanied by integrated publications.
CONTACT
Website: www.irene-watson.com
Instagram: @irene_watson_
[email protected]
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