40" x 40"
Oil on canvas 2024
@Emmettelewis_art
Emmette is a South African and Canadian multidisciplinary artist, now based in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up in British Columbia, her work took inspiration from the natural haven of nature that is B.C and harmonized that with the traditional stylistic practices of South African art; leading her work to utilize obscure materials and recycled resources in her portraiture. During her time in BC, Emmette took courses at Emily Carr University before moving to Toronto and completing her Honors BFA at York University circa 2023. Currently, she is completing her MFA at OCAD in their Interdisciplinary Arts, Media and Design Program. Emmette has showcased at contemporary galleries and museums such as Elaine Fleck Gallery, Museum of Dufferin and Monat Gallery in Madrid. She is a winning recipient of the Boynes Artist Award and the Museum of Dufferin Artist award. Through her involvement with Toronto’s eccentric arts scenes and its underground subcultures, her work adapted from expressionist portraiture and figurative abstract paintings to contemporary works of environmental commentary and eco preservation.
THE STORY:
I understand art as an unparalleled gateway that channels emotional expression and creative consciousness into a visual language. Primarily, my creative focus regards subjects that obscure reality and question representation by composing diverse visual narratives. Through collecting and recycling organic and synthetic materials, I create abstract reflections that seek to deconstruct societal archetypes. These reflections become an intimate representation of how our environments shape our core. My work exhibits this through expressionist portraiture and anomalous figures with an ambiguous lens of stylized and structural beauty. Within the juxtaposing form of imagery, the subject of my works asks the audience to question the relationship between the apparent and the hidden; to consider what exists beyond what is seen. I do this in my artistic practice by playing with images that embrace both the familiar and the uncanny. The foundation of my art explores ideas that look to be devoid of conventional adaptations of beauty, femininity and fragility. My paintings fashion identities that are reflective of personal intimacies, relationships, and memories of my community.
*Please note: Purchased works are available for pickup on Sat. Oct 5th from 12-3pm, otherwise, arrangements will be made between collectors and buyers directly following the Art Circuit.