EMMA RICHARDSON
Driven by an interest in psychology, sexuality and transcendence, Emma Richardson's large scale oil paintings explore themes of human drive and connection, the complexities of female desire and the search for ecstatic experience. She draws inspiration from a wide variety of sources including historical painting, ideas of the dangerous woman, female authority and desire, and her previous experience as a touring musician. This leads to research into the human need throughout history to find escape through the transcendental, in religion, spirituality, sex, drugs, music, and the power of the natural world. In these imagined psychological landscapes Richardson plays with how paint can describe and suggest the intensity of an experience or sensation, representing both the physical and the metaphysical, and it’s ability to conjure the struggle between the spirit of the times and the spirit of the depths. Emma Richardson graduated from Wimbledon School of Art, London with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art in 2004. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in London, Southampton, Manchester, Margate, Hong Kong, Barcelona and Madrid. She received DYCP funding from Arts Council England in 2021 and in 2022 completed three years on the Turps Correspondence Course. Her paintings are held in private collections in Canada, America, Italy, Spain and the UK. Alongside painting Richardson is also a musician, and previously wrote and performed worldwide with Band of Skulls for over ten years. Her paintings appear on a selection of their album and single releases. She currently lives and works in London, UK.