Austin Irving

Austin Irving (born 1984) is an American contemporary artist and photographer.

Early life and education Irving was born in New York City in 1984. She is the daughter of film director David Irving and landscape designer Susan Irving. Her paternal grandparents are theater director Jules Irving and the actress Priscilla Pointer. She is the niece of the actress Amy Irving. In 2006, Austin Irving graduated cum laude from the Tisch School Of The Arts at NYU with a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging.

Career Austin Irving works with large format analog photography. She uses a Toyo-View camera and shoots on 4x5 Kodak color negative. Her images are presented as large scale photographic prints. Her artwork has been the recipient of numerous awards and has been exhibited in galleries, museums and festivals in Hong Kong, India, Germany, Lithuania, France, Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Indonesia, Budapest, and in the United States. Her photographs explore liminality and metageography, anthropocentrism, and the tension between natural and man-made environments. Irving said that her photographic practice is motivated by the wish to find relief from the "extreme internal discomfort" of living with body dysmorphic disorder. She cites Thomas Demand, Bernd & Hilla Becher, MC Escher, René Magritte, Lynne Cohen, and James Turrell as artists whose work has impacted her career.

In 2017, she was the artist-in-residence at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India. In 2019, she was an artist-in-residence at the Varda Artist Residency aboard the SS Vallejo, a historic houseboat in Sausalito, California.

Notable works Not An Exit (2007–present) showcases real-world optical illusions created from narrow angles in functional hallways and doorways. These photographs have been called Escher-esque, a reference to M. C. Escher. The debut of this series in 2015 at Wilding Cran Gallery was reviewed in The LA Times by art critic Leah Ollman. The series has been honored in the Budapest International Foto Awards, the Architecture MasterPrize, Analog Sparks International Film Photography Awards, PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris, the Aesthetica Art Prize, the Tokyo International Foto Awards, was nominated for the Felix Schoeller Photo Award, was a finalist in Klompching's FRESH Annual Photography Exhibition, and has been shortlisted for The PhMuseum's Photography Grant.

Show Caves (2009–present) has received significant media and academic interest for its interrogation of the ethics and impact of ecotourism, specifically the concept of government and commercially operated show caves. As a result, Irving was asked to sit on a panel for a public forum on rural economies at Virginia Tech's annual conference for Appalachian Studies Association, where the socio-economic impact of commodifying rural arts, culture, environment, and heritage to create a tourist industry in rural Appalachia was debated. The series has also been featured on The Weather Channel, Yatzer, ND Awards, AI-AP American Photography, Budapest International Foto Awards, and the International Photo Grant. An image from this series won the Florida Museum of Photographic Art's 2021 International Photography Competition.

His Minecraft (2021–present) is an analogue study of virtual interiors. Using 4x5 color negative, Irving has developed a bespoke method of photographing digitally-generated interiors found within her husband’s private Minecraft city. In 2023, the series was honored in the Annual Photography Awards, PX3 Prix De La Photographie Paris, the Architecture Master Prize, ND Awards, Budapest International Foto Awards, and Tokyo International Foto Awards.

Solo exhibitions

Open Studio, The Clay Factory, Los Angeles, 2022 CORNERED, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, 2018 NOT AN EXIT, Photo LA, Wilding Cran Booth 412, The Reef/La Mart, Los Angeles, 2017 NOT AN EXIT, Wilding Cran Gallery, Los Angeles, 2015 Portals, Curio Gallery, Los Angeles, 2012

Selected group exhibitions

Verzasca Foto, Canton of Ticino, Switzerland, 2023 Landscape: Constructed & Wild, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2023 Photoshoot 2021, Black Box Gallery, Portland, Oregon, 2021 New Borders, International Photography Symposium, Nida, Lithuania, 2021 Nature: Landscape Serene And Savage, MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 2021 8th Annual Abstract Catalyst, Verum Ultimum Art Gallery, Portland, Oregon, 2021 International Photography Competition, Florida Museum Of Photographic Arts, Tampa, Florida, 2021 Photography A Sense Of Place, Site:Brooklyn Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, 2021 One Year On: Don’t Go Back To Sleep – Chelsea Productions: A Film By Nadav Kander And Johan Kramer, 2021 A Curious Horizon, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, California, 2020 - The exhibition explored our perceptions of and relationships to the world and our sense of place within it. Uncanny doorways, artificially encased exotic flora, and pastel-hued images of empty suburban spaces converge to evoke subtle and powerful statements on the precarious nature of the environments we’ve built and reshaped. The Next Big Thing, Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, California, 2020 Photoville, New Works From NYU’s Department Of Photography & Imaging Alumni, Brooklyn, NY, 2019 All Media, The Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, California, 2019 Winners Exhibition, Px3 Paris Photography Gold Prize, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, 2019 Trees, The New York Center For Photographic Arts, New York, NY, 2019 The Edge Effect, The Katonah Museum Of Art, Katonah, New York, 2019 - Juried By Akili Tommasino, Associate Curator, Modern And Contemporary Art, Museum Of Fine Arts, Boston. Every Woman Biennial, The Bendix Building, Los Angeles, 2019 - Curated By C. Finley, an answer to the Whitney Biennial which showcases diversity among contemporary female and queer artists New Works, Gulf & Western Gallery, TISCH, New York University, NY, 2019 Photokina, Felix Schoeller Photo Award, Cologne, Germany, 2018 Re-Imagining A Safe Space, Gulf & Western Gallery, Tisch, New York University, NY, 2017 - The exhibition explored the notion of Safe Spaces, especially examples of and challenges to the concept. Extreme Appalachia, Armory Gallery, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, 2017 Focus: Photo LA Finalists, Berlin Art Week, Abury Collection, Berlin, Germany, 2016 Interiors Collection, See/Me, Exposure Awards, Musé Du Louvre, Paris, 2015 Neither Here Nor There, Fotofocus, Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2014 King Co. Metro + Photo Center, NW Photomural/Public Art, Seattle, 2014 After Dark II, Greg Moon Gallery, Taos, New Mexico, 2014 Photography of the Spectacular, B/G Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA, 2014 Metamorphosis, B/G Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, 2014 4th Annual Juried Exhibition, Gallery 110, Seattle, 2014 The Orgone Accumulators, B/G Gallery, Santa Monica, 2014 Light & Memory, A/NT Gallery, Seattle, 2014 Women’s Works, North West Arts Council, Woodstock, Illinois, 2014 Equations, Gloria Delson Fine Art, Los Angeles, 2014 After Dark, Greg Moon Gallery, Taos, 2013 Happening 2013, Lace Benefit Art Auction, LA Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, 2013 MOCA: Fresh Auction, Museum Of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, 2012 SHOW CAVES, LOOK3: Festival of the Photograph, Charlottesville, Virginia, 2012; LOOK3 was founded In 2006 By National Geographic photographer Michael Nichols and has been billed as 3 days of peace, love, and photography The Series XII, The Standard Hotel, Los Angeles, 2012 Underexposed, Curio Gallery, Los Angeles, 2011 12th Annual Juried National Photo Competition, Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY, 2007

Awards and nominations 2023 - Analog Sparks International Competition (Architectural Photographer of the Year), ), Aesthetica Art Prize,

2021 - Px3 Prix De La Photographie De Paris, Monovisions Photography Awards, American Illustration And American Photography (AI-AP), Florida Museum Of Photographic Arts (Best in Show) Tokyo International Foto Awards

2019 - International Photo Grant (1st Place), ), Tokyo International Foto Awards, Felix Scholler Photo Award (Shortlist), The New York Center For Photographic Arts International Competition

2016 - United States Artists Fellowship Nominee

2015 - Felix Schoeller Photo Award Finalist

2014 - 4th Annual Juried Exhibition, Gallery 110 - 4th Annual Juried Exhibition (Jury Award)

2013 - International Photography Awards