Emmette Lewis
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 paintings. 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. Emmette has showcased at contemporary galleries such as Elaine Fleck and Monat Gallery in Madrid. She is a winning recipient of the Boynes Emerging Artist Award and the District Authority DogWood 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.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Primarily, my creative focus regards subjects around eco-maintenance and social activism by composing diverse visual narratives. Through collecting and recycling organic and synthetic materials, I create abstract reflections of our relationship with nature. These reflections then become an intimate representation of how our environments shape our core. Most often I exhibit these principals 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. In doing this, my portraits coalesce within the abstract foreground, intricately intertwining self and environment. The merging of my subjects aims to celebrate the very theology of nature's divine energy with the divine feminine. The themes that captivate me within my work are inspired by obscuring realities and questioning representation. I do this in my artistic practice by playing with images that embrace both the familiar and the uncanny. The foundation of my subjects explore ideas that look to be devoid of traditional adaptations of beauty. My paintings fashion identities that are reflective of personal intimacies, relationships, and memories of my community.
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 paintings. 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. Emmette has showcased at contemporary galleries such as Elaine Fleck and Monat Gallery in Madrid. She is a winning recipient of the Boynes Emerging Artist Award and the District Authority DogWood 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.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
Primarily, my creative focus regards subjects around eco-maintenance and social activism by composing diverse visual narratives. Through collecting and recycling organic and synthetic materials, I create abstract reflections of our relationship with nature. These reflections then become an intimate representation of how our environments shape our core. Most often I exhibit these principals 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. In doing this, my portraits coalesce within the abstract foreground, intricately intertwining self and environment. The merging of my subjects aims to celebrate the very theology of nature's divine energy with the divine feminine. The themes that captivate me within my work are inspired by obscuring realities and questioning representation. I do this in my artistic practice by playing with images that embrace both the familiar and the uncanny. The foundation of my subjects explore ideas that look to be devoid of traditional adaptations of beauty. My paintings fashion identities that are reflective of personal intimacies, relationships, and memories of my community.
$1,000.00
Oil, acrylic, spray paint, pastel, recycled fabric on canvas.
16x20"
Textile Rabbits is an introspective observation on the overproduction of textile waste. Through the use of recycled textile materials, these pieces use the symbolism of rabbits to signify the “overpopulation” of textiles in our ecosystems. Reflective of the phrase, “breed like rabbits”, textiles are mass produced at a rate in which the earth can not compete, leaving pristine landscapes barren and exhausted from excessive production. Each piece portrays a various environment that has become devoured by textile pollution.
