Iris Sylv is a post-digital impressionist born in Bulgaria, educated in Germany and currently based in Denmark. She is the founder of computational herbalism — an artform within the intersection of nature and constructed systems.
Her practice brings together plant life, human agency, and a range of artificial processes and devices. She engages with themes of memory, perception and growth, exploring the influence of the natural world on the self. As an undertone, she also reflects on the female embodied experience and the role of historical artistic techniques in a contemporary practice.
Shaped by self-coded digital tools, optical equipment and traditional painting principles, her work develops a distinct visual language in which rich organic detail meets algorithmic structure.
With a background in engineering and a self-taught artistic path, Iris investigates how combining diverse disciplines can catalyze new forms of artistic expression. She intentionally blurs the boundaries between the handmade and the computational, the traditional and the contemporary.
While Iris places a high value on the visual, her work is less about passive consumption of aesthetics and more about meaningful inquiry. She is fascinated by the tension between different worlds, and what can emerge when they cross-pollinate.
Her process exists to discover and pursue new curiosities, to expand her mind and to inspire others towards the same type of exploration. She sees her paintings as a tool to slow people down and encourage a more attentive, reflective way of seeing — both individually and in interaction with others.
Through her work, Iris aims to deliver a multi-layered experience that sparks observation, introspection, and discussion around shifting perspectives — starting from the visual and literal, and evolving into the ever more figurative.
While belonging to a predominantly private practice, Iris Sylv's works have entered institutional collections in her home town and private collections in Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany and Romania.
My personal story will be published soon.