Rosie Emerson is an award winning contemporary artist from the UK, working almost exclusively on representing the female form. Emerson’s figures draw reference from archetypes old and new from Artemis to the modern day super model.
Inspired by her love of museums, architecture, theatre, silhouettes and shrines, she uses dramatic lighting, hand made costumes, set and prop-making alongside printmaking and painting to create ethereal works on paper.
Her subjects range from well known icons to models, actors, dancers and friends, who she photographs in her studio. She then uses numerous different print techniques. Her screen-prints are delicately embellished with bronze powders and more unusual materials including charcoal powder, ash and saw dust. These textural prints shift the focus of printmaking from precision and replication to the creation of unique, hand-finished prints.
Her Cyanotype works enable her to use UV light from the sun to expose objects and large scale photographic negatives directly on to the paper which has been coated with a light sensitive emulsion. Once dried, the works are often hand painted or gilded with gold leaf. Emerson describes “the technique itself has an element of magic about it, it is wonderful to be able to combine painting, collage and photography in this way’’.
Emerson’s current Photopolymer etchings continue to push printmaking in new directions, her monochrome portraits are delicately embossed with unusual materials; salt, netting, hair and cellophane. She also hand builds small theatre maquettes, which play with scale and create ornate surrounds to her subjects. Her works almost always echo previous eras and sometimes other worlds entirely.
Recent highlights include being artist in residence at Somerset House, exhibitions at the Royal West of England Academy, Bristol and the Southbank Centre. A Finalist for the Young Masters Prize and shortlisted for the Rise Art Print Award, Emerson was also commissioned by Arts council England to create a new Guinness World record and create the world’s largest Cyanotype photograph.
Her work is widely collected and exhibited both in the UK and internationally. She has also been commissioned by brands including Sony, Triumph Underwear, Redbull, P&O Cruises, Toms, and Annoushka jewelry working with models Amber le Bon, Daisy Lowe and singer Eliza Doolittle.
Her work has also been featured in Creative Review, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Another Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine and The Sunday Times Style Magazine.
EXHIBITIONS + ART FAIRS
Selected Group & Solo
2021
Royal West of England Academy Open, Bristol
Forthcoming:
Affordable Art Fair online edition, Decorazon Gallery
London Original Print Fair, Smithson Gallery
Art Car Boot Fair, online edition, Smithson Gallery
Exclusive print launch Selfridges, TAP Gallery
2020
Society of Women Artists, selected group show
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair
London Original Print Fair, Royal Academy, Smithson Gallery
‘Women by Women’ Royal Over Sea’s League, London
2019
RWA Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London
Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries , London
Choose Love, curated by Print Club ,Somerset House, London
2018
Phantoms, Solo Exhibition, Fairhurst Gallery, Norfolk
Circle gallery, St Ives, group exhibition with House of artists
2017
Art Palm Springs, Decorazon Gallery, USA
The National Art Open, The Barge House, London
Imperfect Illusions, Joint exhibition, Turner Barnes Gallery
Revolutions, Viking Gallery, Margate
Blisters, Paperback edition, Print Club, London
New York and Stockholm Affordable Art Fair, Decorazon Gallery
2016
Visions and Voices, Joint Exhibition, Decorazon Gallery, NYC Skirball Center, New York, USA
The London Art Fair, Decorazon Gallery
Art on a Postcard, Maddox Gallery, London
New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Stockholm and London Affordable Art Fairs, Decorazon Gallery
Bristol Affordable Art Fair, Smithson Gallery
2015
Enigmas, Turner Barnes Gallery, Essex (Solo)
Aurora, The Club at The Ivy, London (Solo)
There and Now, Leontia Gallery, London
Finalist Young Masters, Sphinx Fine Art, London, curated by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London
Kinds of Blue, Candida Stevens Fine Art, Chichester
Texas Contemporary, Decorazon Gallery
Dog Days, Hang Up Gallery, London
Good Figures, Mall Galleries, London, curated by Candida Stevens
The London Art Fair, Fiumano Fine Art, London
2014
Ventique, Smithson Gallery, London (Solo)
The Moon is no Door, Opus Gallery, Gloucestershire (Solo)
Sirens, Hang Up Gallery, London (Solo)
Paint on Paper, Hollywood Rd Gallery, London
Carnival, Imitate Modern Gallery, London
Winter Salon, The Lloyds Club, Roberta Moore Contemporary
London, Mexico City and New York AAF, Decorazon Gallery
Hong Kong AAF, Fiumano Fine Art, Hong Kong
2013
Macmillan De'Longhi Art Auction, Bonham’s, RCA, London
Façade, Rosie Emerson and Nina Fowler, Anise Gallery, London
Femme, Studio 1019, Decorazon Gallery, Dallas, USA
2012
Shrine, Roberta Moore, The Chelsea Club, London (Solo)
Harvey Nichols, Knightsbridge, London (Solo)
Altered Forms, Rosie Emerson, Anja Niemi and Nancy Fouts, Hang Up Gallery, London
Rapture, Roberta Moore Contemporary, Cheltenham
Guts for Garters, COB Gallery, London
Singapore AAF, Fiumano Fine Art
Celebration, Fiumano Fine Art, London
Sex and Death Guts for Garters, Carnaby Street, London
2011
Alchemy, Art at Annoushka, London (Solo)
Nostalgia, Rook and Raven Gallery, London
In Darkness Blooms, View Art Gallery
Anatomy, Guts for Garters, COB Gallery, London
Macmillan De Longi Art Auction, Bonham’s, London
London Fashion Weekend, Somerset House, London
Surreal Women, Guts for Garters- COB Gallery, London
MoMac Pop Up, Roberta Moore Gallery, Cheltenham
Women of the World Festival, The Southbank Centre, London
Photography Open, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
