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Emi Avora is a Greek born, UK trained (Oxford University and Royal Academy Schools) and Singapore based artist. She has exhibited world wide with solo projects including the National Theatre of Greece Athens, South Square Arts Centre, UK, The Apartment Gallery, Athens, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York and Gallery Truebenbach, Cologne. She has participated in a number of group shows including Studio Voltaire, London, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, The Whitechapel Gallery, London and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki. Her work can be found in private as well as public collections in Europe, Asia and the USA, including The Wonderful Fund collection, Marsh collection, Central Bank of Greece collection. She has also been an Elizabeth Greenshields recipient and her work has been in various publications including ArtMaze Magazine, Create Magazine, Artist Friend, the New York Times and Defining the Contemporary, The Whitechapel in Association with Sotheby’s. She is one of the 2020 Delphian gallery open call group exhibition winners and she exhibited recently at Nouri/Appetite, Singapore (solo) as well as JW PROJECTS, Singapore. Upcoming projects include a show at Art Seasons, Singapore and a publication of a book.
Published on March 3rd, 2024. Artist responses collected in months previous.
What are you working on these days?
I have been working hard to develop some large scale paintings that I will probably will be using to show at ARTSG, the International Art Fair here in Singapore as well as a show at the same time in a gallery. January is a busy month for Art in Singapore so I am trying to have a lot of new work by then. I have also completed a ceramics residency while I was in Greece over the summer so my aim is to continue with some ceramic pieces here.
What has been going well for you in your art career and life recently?
There have been various events and opportunities recently that make me feel more rooted artistically in the place of my residence in Singapore. I also feel a bit more fluent in my practice, more confident in what I am trying to discover through the painting and ambitious to make larger work. At the same time I feel there are also some opportunities abroad that I would like to work on. Nevertheless it is always hard to balance life with kids and studio so I need to be careful not to burn myself out. I find there is a fine line between enjoying the studio and getting anxious to finish work so I am trying to stick to a healthy balance but it is not always easy.
What is something new that you have discovered this past year that is meaningful or helpful for you?
I attended a ceramics residency in Corfu, Greece where I am originally from over the summer this year. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the medium further and connecting it to my practice. I feel the residency helped me to find a way I could proceed to a coexistence of the two media but it is still soon to tell. I also had some commissions this year that pushed me to work on a larger scale. I enjoyed the challenge of that and the physicality of making paintings that are larger than myself.
Briefly walk us through your process of making art or thinking through a new project, focusing on what's most important to you as you create.
Each painting starts loosely in a very abstract way. At the beginning I stain the canvas while it is still unstretched. It is my way of not wasting paint but also a way of creating accidental mark that form a patina and depth on the canvas. Once the canvas is stretched I start forming the composition of the painting which again it happens quite organically in coordination with color layers and washes. My aim is to create a dreamspace where quite a lot of different things connect and coexist and where the viewer could step into and take a visual journey. In that space I do not abide to the laws of perspective. Things are recognisable but I play with light and colour to create an emotional, parallel space that stems from our own world. The later stages of the painting are very much what I call the time when I battle with colour and paint in order to bring the maximalistic composition to a close, where it can be discerned as a singular piece of work.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?
I would recommend to al artists to consider doing a residency however short as it is very likely they will discover something new during that period. Also by setting a goal of submitting for a project or making a body of work by a certain period of time it is then easier to push the practice and discover or come up with new things. The urgency of a goal can be miraculous and very beneficial sometimes.
What are you working on these days?
I have been working hard to develop some large scale paintings that I will probably will be using to show at ARTSG, the International Art Fair here in Singapore as well as a show at the same time in a gallery. January is a busy month for Art in Singapore so I am trying to have a lot of new work by then. I have also completed a ceramics residency while I was in Greece over the summer so my aim is to continue with some ceramic pieces here.
What has been going well for you in your art career and life recently?
There have been various events and opportunities recently that make me feel more rooted artistically in the place of my residence in Singapore. I also feel a bit more fluent in my practice, more confident in what I am trying to discover through the painting and ambitious to make larger work. At the same time I feel there are also some opportunities abroad that I would like to work on. Nevertheless it is always hard to balance life with kids and studio so I need to be careful not to burn myself out. I find there is a fine line between enjoying the studio and getting anxious to finish work so I am trying to stick to a healthy balance but it is not always easy.
What is something new that you have discovered this past year that is meaningful or helpful for you?
I attended a ceramics residency in Corfu, Greece where I am originally from over the summer this year. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the medium further and connecting it to my practice. I feel the residency helped me to find a way I could proceed to a coexistence of the two media but it is still soon to tell. I also had some commissions this year that pushed me to work on a larger scale. I enjoyed the challenge of that and the physicality of making paintings that are larger than myself.
Briefly walk us through your process of making art or thinking through a new project, focusing on what's most important to you as you create.
Each painting starts loosely in a very abstract way. At the beginning I stain the canvas while it is still unstretched. It is my way of not wasting paint but also a way of creating accidental mark that form a patina and depth on the canvas. Once the canvas is stretched I start forming the composition of the painting which again it happens quite organically in coordination with color layers and washes. My aim is to create a dreamspace where quite a lot of different things connect and coexist and where the viewer could step into and take a visual journey. In that space I do not abide to the laws of perspective. Things are recognisable but I play with light and colour to create an emotional, parallel space that stems from our own world. The later stages of the painting are very much what I call the time when I battle with colour and paint in order to bring the maximalistic composition to a close, where it can be discerned as a singular piece of work.
Is there anything else that you would like to share with our readers?
I would recommend to al artists to consider doing a residency however short as it is very likely they will discover something new during that period. Also by setting a goal of submitting for a project or making a body of work by a certain period of time it is then easier to push the practice and discover or come up with new things. The urgency of a goal can be miraculous and very beneficial sometimes.
Find Emi Avora on Instagram
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