Ema: Brooklyn, we go hard!
Breuckelen 9th September – 9th October at Recoat Gallery, Glasgow
Ema began spray-painting the walls of her hometown, Montpellier (Fr) in the early 90′s. Instantly hooked by graffiti, it wasn’t long before her works adorned buildings and trains throughout the South of France, Paris and Barcelona before moving across Europe and North America.
As a resident of New York for the past 10 years, Ema’s work can be seen throughout the city, both inside and outside the gallery; from exhibitions in Chelsea, to wheat-pastes in Brooklyn and large-scale murals across Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.
For this exhibition, titled Breuckelen (the original name for Brooklyn), Ema presents a series of original works celebrating a decade of soul-searching, creative explorations and one-hell-of-a-time in the city so good, they named it twice.
Describe a day in the life of Ema.
This year has been busy with exhibitions, so I’ve been mainly preparing these. So everyday is quite different but it is basically a balance between answering emails, travelling, painting inside or outside.
What attracted you to graffiti?
I was attracted to graffiti as a teenager, because it was something new, uncommon, and slightly controversial.
What inspires you?
At the moment I like painting abstract, art deco-inspired backgrounds, in which I incorporate various influences including typography, 90′s hip-hop, and 70′s science fiction. But really my inspiration comes from everything and everyone, it’s an ongoing thing, a mix between things from the past and the present.
What is your favourite piece of work you have made?
I’m not sure I have a favorite piece of work. Sometimes I’m really proud of a piece, but after looking at it too much I don’t like it anymore. Some other pieces I don’t like them at first but I like them later. I think all of my paintings and installations share a bit of good and bad, and they belong to the time they were created.
What can we look forward to seeing in your show at Recoat?
I’ve been working on a series of new ink paintings on paper. This technique is pretty new to me and I’m really enjoying experimenting with it. Most of the pieces I will show at Recoat are about Brooklyn, where I lived for a while.
The exhibition opens on 9th September 7-10pm. The show will then run till the 9th of October open 12-6pm Tuesday to Sunday.
