Women by Women with Rosie Emerson
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Rosie Emerson, Blood Roses, Hand painted charcoal and bronze powder screen print on Bockingford 300 gsm printmaking paper, 75cm x 55cm, Signed edition of 10, each print is unique, £880 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Brigitte Bardot – Faded Palm Sparkle edition, Charcoal and black glitter Screenprint on 300 gsm Somerset Satin Paper, 150cm x 60 cm Unframed, Signed limited edition of 10, £2700 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Charlie and Annika, Water colour and bronze powder photopolymer etching on Southbank 300 gsm printmaking paper, Paper size: 56 x 37 cm Image size: 31.5cm x 21cm, Signed limited edition: of 15 +2 AP's, £375 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Falcon, Charcoal powder screenprint on 280 gsm printmaking paper, 100cm x 35cm Unframed, Signed limited edition of 20, £440 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Lovers, Photopolymer etching, 21cm x 29.5cm, Unframed Signed limited edition of 18, £160 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Mare Tranquilitatis, Hand painted photopolymer etching with 22 ct gold leaf 59cm round, unframed 65cm x 65cm, Signed limited edition of 3 +3 AP’s, £1760 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Moda, Photopolymer etching with embossing, Paper size: 55 x 25 cm Image size: 41 x 15 cm Unframed, Signed limited edition of 12, £300 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Nymph, Hand painted charcoal and bronze powder screen print on paper, 75cm x 55cm Unframed, Limited edition of 14 all uniquely finished, £880 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, Paradiso (edition 5), Hand painted charcoal and bronze powder screen print on paper, 75cm x 55cm Unframed, Limited edition of 14 all uniquely finished, £880 (unframed)
Rosie Emerson, born in 1981, is a contemporary artist working almost exclusively on representing the female form. Emerson’s figures draw reference from archetype’s old and new, from Artemis to the modern day super model, each solitary figure, becomes an allegory of her own fantasy.
Her screen-prints, using unusual materials including charcoal powder, ash and saw dust shift the focus of printmaking from precision and replication, to creation of unique, hand-finished prints with subtle texture. Her recent cyanotype works enable her to montage objects, with real size photographic negatives. Using the UV light from the sun to expose objects directly on the surface, she explores the interplay between painting, collage and photography.
Her work is widely collected and exhibited both in the UK, as well as internationally, through galleries, art fairs and museums. She has also been commissioned by brands and individuals including Sony, Triumph Underwear, Redbull, P&O Cruises, Toms, and Annoushka jewelry. Her work has also been featured in Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Another Magazine, The Financial Times Magazine and The Sunday Times Style Magazine.
In 2014 she was invited to be Artist in residence at Somerset House and was commissioned by Hackney WickED Arts Festival to create a new world record by making the world’s largest Cyanotype photograph.
In the build up to the exhibition we reached out to Rosie Emerson to find out more about her and her work.
At ROSL we are so glad to have you showing in the gallery for the upcoming show Women by Women. Can you talk a little bit about the work you are contributing?
Yes delighted to be part of such a varied and rich celebration of works by women of women. I work almost exclusively with representation women in my work, I work with women mostly because I am one, I think when representing women there is a lot more historical baggage which comes along with it especially in art but also culturally and everything else. I like to reference this rich resource without being chained to it, they are not on first sight obviously contemporary portraits in part due to their mix of digital and analogue approaches I use and the lack of context and backgrounds means they isolated and iconised, adorned and decorated to goddess like status. My subjects are not personal they can be friends or friends of friends sometimes professional models often dancers or actors who are brilliant because they are mostly comfortable being looked at and photographed but don’t follow the usual fashion poses and expressions. My approach is usually based in collage in essence although a lot of my cut and paste happens on the computer these days I love bringing together elements which have been individually photographed such as palm leaves or roses, I’m a magpie with my camera I hoard images and bank them for later, some elements I draw and then photograph and add to the digital collage from here I create images which are then transferred to a silk screen I usually hand paint each piece of paper before it is printed as I use unusual textures on my prints these works are all printed using charcoal powder as and some also have bronze powder which is usually used for holding furniture it comes in pink and gold and it’s shimmer means the works change depending not what angle you look at it from. This approach is unpredictable and what gives the works a more delicate and ephemeral look, although editions each print is different from the next and this makes them exciting to make especially when they are hand painted there is so much preparation and work that’s goes into each one from its origin of an idea, to photographing my model , I’ve got quite hooked on the big reveal at the end when the work is lifted up off the screen printing bed.
Is there something particularly relevant between your life experiences and the art you produce?
I’d say that the fact I considered even being an artist and was supported by my family to go to so was due to my the fact that my grandmother Keyna Emerson is a painter. She studied at the Slade pre and post 2nd world war, and her bold and yet delicate works have got more abstract throughout the years.
Can you describe one artwork or series from your oeuvre that you feel was pivotal in your career?
Without doubt my Model series I started 2006 or around that time, many were scribbled late at night in my first studio I had in an unheated room above a stable in Dorset, I’d been painting huge 2 x 3 m fantastical landscapes combining oil paint and collage. I didn’t have the patience for oil painting so I started creating quick collages with fashion magazines on paper whilst the oil painting dried. They turned out to be a new direction for me from which I haven’t really looked back.
Do you have any other artists that you look to as inspiration? What makes a great artist?
Gosh so many for lots of reasons, from great photographer like Irving Penn to pencil drawings of Cy Twombly, what makes a great artist in my eyes is when I look at it and wish I’d made it.
What advice would you give to emerging artists entering the art world?
I’d stay stick together being an artist made me feel like an outsider looking in on the world, but there are loads of creative people out there and I thrived when I surrounded myself with them, both in terms of living and working amongst them and also on the online community. It’s easy especially in this day and age to constantly compare yourself and work to others, but use it to motivate yourself to be make the best work, true to you. Sometimes galleries like to watch your progression over a few years, so stick at it and put yourself out there.