Emi Avora (1979) is a Greek born, UK trained (Oxford University and Royal Academy Schools) and Singapore based artist. She has exhibited widely in the UK and abroad. Solo projects include the National Theatre of Greece Athens, South Square Arts Centre, 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 and the USA, including The Wonderful Fund collection and March collection. She has also been an Elizabeth Greenshields recipient and her work has been in various publications, including ArtMaze Magazine, The New York Times, Future Now, Aesthetica Magazine and Defining the Contemporary, The Whitechapel in Association with Sotheby’s. Her work was recently included in Be.Long.Ing, an online exhibition, organised by ilikeyourworkpodcast.com, as well as featured in online platforms http://yngspc.com and @greekfoundation. She recently had an online exhibition at www.sidexsidecontemporary.com.
Statement
Born in Athens and currently based in Singapore, Emi Avora is drawing subject matter from her everyday; her sketches and images of public and personal spaces focus on the interior and still life. Her works are entering a dialog with painting’s modernist historical canons and ponder on our ambiguous relationship to colonial narratives, exoticism, and taste. Humour, curiosity, and anxiety are elements that occupy her compositions. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes intense and with the use of light on the driving seat, her work allows space for invention, creating a gab between looking and making, between the real and the imaginary. Everyday observations become exaggerated through the use of colour and change of scale, focusing on what surprises her or grasps her attention. Stemming from reality, observed situations are weaved into fictional compositions that allow a multitude of readings. Equally, the very process of mark making opens up a platform to investigate painting’s power to transcend imagery by breaking it down to the basics of colour, shape, pattern and composition.
Instagram: @erasmiavora
