Iryna Merkulova is a Montreal-based visual artist whose practice spans painting and drawing, with a focus on the perceptual and social systems embedded in urban environments. A graduate of Concordia University’s Bachelor of Fine Arts program, she combines meticulous observation with gestural and experimental mark-making, translating ephemeral social phenomena into layered, tactile compositions.

Through series such as Blind Contour and Glass & Plastic, Merkulova examines thresholds between public and private, ordered and chaotic, highlighting the ways individuals navigate complex visual and social landscapes. Her immigrant identity is present in her work, but not in a literal or biographical way. It’s embedded in the sensibility of the images and the way she observes and positions herself in space, the way she register tension, distance, and belonging.

Merkulova’s work has been presented in solo and two-person exhibitions at Maison de la culture Janine-Sutto (Montreal), Shenkman Arts Centre (Ottawa), and La Galerie La Seigneurerie (Châteauguay), among others. She has received national recognition through awards and grants including the Canada Council for the Arts Research and Creation Grant, and the Conseil des arts de Montréal Exhibition Assistance Grant.