Most paintings require a leap of faith of some sort – trusting an object is real, believing in the life of a landscape, or extending empathy to a lone figure really before us. In the work of this week’s artist Emma-Louise Grady, the viewer is asked less for their faith, than their upmost attention and discernment.
Made up of a compression of dots, dashes, and undulating lines, each richly calibrated piece invites the us to speculate, daring viewers to resist their spellbinding hypnotism. In celestial-like markings, the work brings up a barrage (or mirage) of associations – twisting paisleys, peacock feathers, fossilised shells and more seem to pulsate under the gaze. Both ornamental and refined, motifs collate as if the complexities of a cell structure had been viewed under a microscope.
Hailing from Scotland, Grady has already garnered buzz and attention since graduating in 2019. She recently exhibited work in the Royal Scottish Academy’s ‘New Contemporaries 2020’ show, winning the Fleming-Wyfold Foundation Award for ‘best painter or draughtsman/woman’. In 2019 she also won the John Kinross Scholarship, to work and study in Florence – using the opportunity to explore new mediums and invent new compositions. [image]
Since her 2019 residency and graduation, Grady has been working as an independent artist-in-resident for Enterprise Mentoring, toiling away in her city-central Glasgow studio to refine and extend her practice. What we do know is that her process involves a steady layering of paint; she works up depth so that in the end, only glimpses of an abyssal black can be seen her through colourful ribboned and purled forms. Grady also selects only five or six colours per piece, focusing the eye on the marks themselves, as if directing viewers to read her work like hieroglyphics. Each piece takes on a personality of its own, and we’re so proud to be part of the excited to represent a selection of work on our site.
