Irene Balia

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Suspended between dream and reality. Representation moves beyond mere description to become a vehicle for an inner, emotional dimension.

Opere artista

Bio

Irene Balia was born in 1985 in Iglesias, Sardinia. She graduated in Painting from the Academy of Fine Arts of Sassari in 2009.

Alongside the numerous awards she has received throughout her artistic career, including First Prize at the Premio Patrizia Barlettani and a Special Mention at the Videoinsight Prize in 2022, Balia has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions both in Italy and abroad, while maintaining ongoing collaborations with cultural institutions and organizations in Kazakhstan, France, and Germany.

Books, song lyrics, and fleeting moments of everyday life that capture the artist's attention become the creative catalyst for images that unfold within a space suspended between dream and reality. Balia's dreamlike settings do not offer a single interpretative key; rather, they invite multiple readings and reflections on emotional and universal human themes, constantly engaging the viewer through an almost voyeuristic gaze upon scenes of ordinary life.

Alongside her exploration of the present, the artist also develops series that revisit traditional subjects from art history through an original and contemporary perspective. In her series dedicated to still lifes, for example, imagination spills into reality: eggs and lemons are no longer placed in a basket on a table but, instead, they float upon the surface of the sea.

Irene Balia's artistic practice unfolds between reality and imagination, creating images in which representation moves beyond mere description to become a vehicle for an inner, emotional dimension. Everyday objects, symbols, and personal references are relocated into unexpected contexts, generating suspended narratives that resist a single interpretation. Her paintings do not necessarily ask to be understood, but rather to be experienced: emotional landscapes through which each viewer is invited to construct a personal path of meaning, in dialogue with both the artwork and themselves.

Esposizioni

Solo exhibitions

2023 - “Millennium gardens”, con Loredana Galante, Galleria Area\B, Milano, a cura di Alessandra Redaelli

2021 - “Summer on a solitary beach”, con Roberto Fanari, Galleria Macca, Cagliari, curated by Efisio Carbone

2018 - “Strategie di seduzione”, Spazio Chora, Sassari, curated by Valentina Scanu

2017 - “STILL from LIFE”, Apart Spaziocritico, Vicenza

2016 - Esentai Gallery, Almaty (Kazakistan)

2015 - Irene Balia/Elena Vavaro, Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milano

2014 - Spazio Aquadro, Roma

2014 - Irene Balia/Bruno Marrapodi, Interno 18, Cremona

2013 - “Hortus conclusus”, Circoloquadro, Milano, curated by Marta Cereda

Group exhibitions

2025 - “L’intimo segreto del mondo là fuori”, Ex Cartiera Pigna, Alzano Lombardo curated by Alberto Ceresoli

2025 - “2x4”, Dino Morra Gallery, Napoli

2024 - “Gli orizzonti possibili”, Galleria Area\B, Milano, curated by Isabella Tupone and Francesco Mancini

2024 - “1 a Biennale d’arte contemporanea Maria Lai – Progetto e Destino”, Museo Stazione dell’arte, Ulassai, curated by Chiara Manca, Antonello Carboni, Damiano Rossi and Gianni Murtas

2024 - “Il sospetto”, Museo Irpino, Avellino, curated by Rebecca Russo

2024 - “Any questions?”, Galleria Area\B, Milano curated by Isabella Tupone e Francesco Mancini

2023 - “(Em)Body”, Galerie Camille Pouyfaucon, Parigi, curated by Camille Pouyfaucon

2022 - “Love Bombing. Gaslighting”, Fondazione Videoinsight, Torino, curated by Rebecca Russo

2022 - “Secondo orizzonte”, Fondazione Tito Balestra, Longiano (Forlì-Cesena), curated by Vanni Cuoghi

2022 - “De insula. Antologica dall’Ottocento al contemporaneo”, Pinacoteca Carlo Contini, Oristano, curated by Antonello Carboni and Silvia Oppo

2021 - “A new body of painting”, Superstudiolo, Bergamo, curated by Alberto Ceresoli e Carmela Cosco

2021 - “Perché siamo come tronchi nella neve”, Società Umanitaria, Milano, curated by Luca Zuccala and Andrea Tinterri

2021 - “Innesti21”, GASC – Villa Clerici, Milano, curated by Luigi Codemo

2021 - “Aliena Comune”, Galleria Macca, Cagliari, critical text by Efisio Carbone

2020 - “Back_up|Giovane arte in Sardegna”, Museo Nivola, Orani (Nuoro), curated by Giuliana Altea, Antonella Camarda and Luca Cheri

2019 - “Leonardo 50.0”, Chiesa di Santa Croce, Vinci (Firenze), curated by Filippo Lotti, critical text di Ivan Quaroni

2019 - “Un’altra primavera”, Castello Oldofredi, Calcio (Bergamo), curated by Giuseppe Frangi

2019 - “Dimore”, Museo Diocesano, Oristano, curated by Antonello Carboni and Silvia Oppo

2019 - “Dimore”, MEA - Museo Emigrazione, Asuni (Oristano), curated by Antonello Carboni and Silvia Oppo

2018 - “Contemporary. Le nuove frontiere dell’arte in Sardegna”, Museo Ortis, Atzara (Nuoro), curated by Antonello Carboni and Silvia Oppo

2017 - “Asylum”, Exma, Cagliari, curated by Roberta Vanali

2017 - “Forme d'uomo”, Apart Spaziocritico, Vincenza

2016 - “Paesaggi”, Studio d'arte Cannaviello, Milano

2016 - “Aperto”, Ex convento del Carmelo, Sassari, critical text by Sonia Borsato

2016 - “Stato di Grazia”, Palazzo della Regione, Cagliari, curated by Davide Mariani

2016 - “2016 Odissea nella pittura-meme o non meme”, Marche Centro d'Arte, San Benedetto del Tronto, curated by Giovanni Manunta Pastorello e Josephine Sassu

2016 - “Rivista 170”, Apart Spaziocritico, Vicenza

2016 - “Modus Operandi”, EX Fornace, Milano, curated by Twenty14 Contemporary and Elena Vaninetti

2015 - “Legami”, L.E.M. Laboratorio Estetica Moderna, Sassari, curated by Pinuccia Marras and Giovanni Manunta Pastorello 2015 “Camere d’artista”, Twenty 14 contemporary, Milano

2015 - “Omnia signa, nero su bianco”, Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milano

2015 - “Cortesie per gli ospiti”, Pinacoteca Mus'a al Canopoleno, Sassari, curated by Davide Mariani

2015 - “Young Artists in Milan”, Esentai Gallery, Almaty (Kazakistan)

2014 - “New Italian Painting”, Schultz gallery, Berlino

2014 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, Spazio Soderini, Milano

2014 - “Premio Lissone”, MAC-museo d'arte contemporanea, Lissone

2014 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, Interno 18, Cremona

2014 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, centro culturale Fabrica Braco de Prata, Lisbona

2014 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, centro culturale Parobrod, Belgrado

2013 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, Studio d'Arte Cannaviello, Milano

2013 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, Opere Scelte, Torino

2013 - “Nuova Pittura Italiana”, Spazio Aquadro, Roma