Irina Shark

Irina Shark is a Franco-Russian sculptor who was born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1982. A finalist in several international competitions including FACE, she is also the winner of the Alain Brugnon prize from the Taylor Foundation.

Self-taught, she began to sculpt in 2011 in Hong Kong, a city where she worked as a translator and a teacher for many years. She later relocated to Florence to focus on sculpture. Her time here, sharing a studio with fellow sculptors and rubbing shoulders with other artists, encouraged reflection on her personal work and vision.

"Her sculptures show great virtuosity, portraying a range of feelings inspired by reality and realised through her own interpretation. Appearing frozen in time, they capture the emotion behind an expression, the singularity of a face, an intense gesture caught in the blink of an eye.

Casting her sharp and curious gaze on our world, Irina's work reflects her own inner world, a world which tries to understand and express the essence of things, to go towards 'the truth'."

Fanny Revault