Irene Mennen-Berg is a visual artist, illustrator and musician, who grew up in Cape Town, South Africa, and now lives and works in Mannheim, Germany, close to the Rhine. Irene studied classical music in Stellenbosch and Frankfurt am Main, a background that still informs and inspires her visual compositions. In 2010, she transitioned into picture book illustration while completing studies in graphic design. In her illustrations, she works in coloured pencil and watercolour on paper, with the images scanned and juxtaposed digitally into collages.
Since 2020, Irene has focussed on drawing from life and painting in her studio or in the woodlands by the Rhine. Her work is inspired by these woods, spaces of memory, and far-off gardens, as well as by the raw physicality of her mediums: charcoal and chalk pastels on paper, and pigments and oils on linen. By bridging illustration with painting, she blends storytelling with an appreciation for the rhythms of the natural world.
“Zwischen Bäumen/Among Trees”, 2023 Theuer + Scherr
Member of the Illustratoren Organisation illustratoren-organisation.de
Awards Illustration
- 2013, M.E.R. Prize for „best illustrated children’s book“ for “Ben and the Whales”/ “Ben en die Walvisse”
- 2016, M.E.R. Prize for „best illustrated children’s book“ for “Ink”
- 2017, Shortlist Huckepack Preis, “Ein Kleid voller Geschichten”
- 2018, IBBY Honour List for the picture book “Ink”
Exhibitions
- 2018 Dalberghaus, Mannheim City Library
- 2017-2021 Travelling exhibition 100 Women – 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage/ 100 Frauen – 100 Jahre Frauenwhalrecht. Instagram @ 100FrauenProjekt
- 2018 KunstFoyer, Gallus Theater, Frankfurt am Main.
- 2019 Hyundai Museum for Kids’ Books and Art, South Korea
- 2022/2023 FynArts Gallery, Hermanus, South Africa
- 2023 Theuer + Scherr, Lanzkapelle, Mannheim