Andi Irwin accesses contemporary ways of communication in lushly brushed abstract paintings. The joy of applying paint is apparent in every single mark that animates her rich surfaces. A recent series is grounded in the patois of Pittsburgh, a city that has maintained its working class, ethnic roots even while transforming itself into a 21st-century city. Irwin uses typical phrases such as yinz or n’at as well as segments of bridges and ladders to ground her abstract compositions as she explores the boundary between representation and abstraction. The simplicity of the everyday world adds an edge to the evocative nature of her work, allowing viewers to impart their own meaning as the artist gently leads them to new insights.Irwin continues these concepts in a new series based on app icons which she embeds into her familiar fields of gestures and colors, creating a new kind of push/pull dynamic. The squarish fields that house the symbols of smart phone apps anchor and structure the freely floating colors brushed quickly onto the large surfaces. These surfaces are reminiscent of modernist abstractions that were based on a perceived universal language intended to communicate directly, without words, to viewers. By adding contemporary symbols, that are specific rather than evocative, Irwin adds the immediacy and ubiquity of contemporary connectivity. By exploring this new world of visual icons, which have much in common with prehistoric pictographs and hieroglyphics, Irwin adds new meaning to the process of reading a painting.