Overgrown

Artist Statement
Born in Athens and currently based in Singapore, Emi Avora is drawing subject matter from her everyday life in Asia as well as her Greek ancestry with a focus on the interior and still life. Her paintings are entering a dialog with modernist historical canons as well as ponder on our ambigu- ous relationship to colonial narratives, exoticism, taste and the everyday. 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 gap be- tween 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 composi- tions that allow a multitude of readings. Equally, the very process of her 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.

Artist Bio
Emi Avora (1979) is a Greek born, UK trained (Oxford University and Royal Academy Schools) and Singapore based artist. She has exhibited in the UK and abroad. Solo projects include the National Theatre of Greece Athens, South Square Arts Centre, UK, The Apartment Gallery, Athens, Green- berg 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 Marsh collection. She has also been an Eliza- beth Greenshields recipient and her work has been in various publications including ArtMaze Magazine, the New York Times, Future Now, Aesthetica Magazine and Defining the Contempo- rary, 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 on on- line platforms http://yngspc.com and www.thegreekfoundation.com. She recently had an online ex- hibition at www.sidexsidecontemporary.com. She is one of the 2020 Delphian gallery open call group exhibition winners and her work will feature in the next publication of Friend of the Artist (FOA) and the next publication of Create! magazine.