Irène Poetschke powerfully presents images drawn from her unconscious and extravagant imagination

Background

Born in 2001, Irène spent her early childhood in Zimbabwe before moving to Mauritius for four years. This was followed by a brief stay in France, three years in Romania, and three years in Mauritania. In 2019, she returned to France to continue her studies, just as the world entered the Covid era, marking a departure from her life as a traveler.

Irène has loved creating since she was very young, whether through drawing, mosaic, or pottery. A versatile and highly imaginative person, she developed a clear vision of aesthetics, color, and form from an early age.

Over the past four years, she has experimented with numerous artistic techniques to discover what she enjoys and develop her own style. In September 2022, she decided to become a full-time painter.

Inspiration and artistic approach 

Her works are transcriptions of images emerging from her unconscious.

At just 24 years old, Irène takes us on a journey through her mysterious and captivating artistic universe: she paints a beauty that is both unsettling and introspective, capturing the complex essence of the female experience. 

Her works are transcriptions of images emanating from her unconscious and her dreams, often inspired by nocturnal visions that she then translates onto canvas or wood.
These images, arising spontaneously, take shape through captivating and dreamlike paintings in a surrealist universe filled with symbols.

While the duality of femininity, oscillating between strength and fragility, is central to her art, she also explores themes such as personal and societal confinement, relationships, violence, mental dissociation, resilience, and the reality of being a woman in the contemporary world.

Her paintings are an invitation to introspection, using metaphorical elements to chart a path of personal evolution: after an initial tormented series focused
on violence and confinement, titled "Jeu de dame" (2022-2023), her paintings found liberation with the series "Sortir du chaos" (2024), symbolizing a break with the old world, hope, and openness. Today, the current series "Maison Rose" (2025-2026) shows a further stage in this journey toward resilience, rebirth, and light.

But beyond this inner dialogue, Irène aspires to create a connection with the viewer, leaving them free to interpret her works according to their own feelings and experiences, in order to raise awareness of their own questions and flaws. 

Techniques :

The technique she primarily uses is oil on canvas or wood, but she also likes to add painted clay covered in resin, which is glued to the canvas, accentuating the sense of relief and making the painting stand out from the frame.

Main exhibitions:

November 6–29, 2026 (scheduled) : Exhibition at the Arsenal in Venice, as one of the finalists of the international Arte Laguna Prize 2025.

January 2026 : Group exhibition "Masterpiece" with "Le Cercle des artistes", Paris 9th arrondissement (private venue).

April–June 2025 : Solo exhibition "Irène Poetschke", Galerie Rouan, Paris 3rd arrondissement.

Nov–Dec 2024 : Solo exhibition "Sortir du chaos", Galerie Dohyang Lee, Paris 3rd arrondissement.

October 2024 : Group exhibition "La Villa 2" with "le Cercle des artistes", Galerie Joseph, Paris 3rd arrondissement.

April 2024 : Group exhibition "La Villa 1" with "le Cercle des artistes", Espace Thorigny, Paris 3rd arrondissement.

June 2023 : Group exhibition in Shoreditch, London, with Holyartgallery.

May 2023 : Solo exhibition "Jeu de dame" at Atelier René, Paris 11th arrondissement.

January 2023 : Group exhibition "Féminescence" in Montreuil, organized by eight students from ICART, Art Market major.

"In the darkness of my art, a confinement expresses itself,
Captive in multiple forms, it embraces every aspect of me.
Chained by the world, by this oppressive society,
In my tormented mind, my actions, my relationships, it manifests.
Art, my liberation, an echo in the face of this felt captivity,
Revealing what I carry, an invisible burden.
Observing the evolution of my art, a metamorphosis takes place,
From the four walls emerges a door, stairs, an exit.
Giving way to a void, an opening toward the unknown,
A landscape takes shape, tinged with blue, the echo of what has become.
Despite the persistent void, a subtle transformation takes shape,
As in life, where nothingness fills with a divine essence.
The room shrinks, giving way to a new expanding world,
My art becomes the reflection of a liberation, an escape."
IP