Following his graduation from Goldsmith's College in 1950, Irvin associated with the domestic realism of the Kitchen Sink movement. In 1955 Irvin became a member of the London Group, only to break free from its constraints after discovering the works of Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko at the legendary 'Modern Art in the United States' exhibition at the Tate in 1956. Thus he reinvented himself as an exponent of a dazzlingly vigorous Abstract Expressionism, becoming a true colourist and one of Britain’s most respected abstract artists. Irvin’s works display his preoccupation with journeys, maps, cities and the spatial environment. What Irvin paints on the canvas is not a picture but an event, a result of an encounter.

Irvin's work is widely exhibited both in the UK and abroad, in such places as Arts Council of Great Britain, Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Contemporary Art Society, Manchester City Art Gallery, Whitworth Gallery Manchester, Leeds City Gallery, Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Oxford University, Cambridge University and Warwick University Arts Centre.