Next 2 Me Painting

Emmettes' work recognizes art as an unparalleled gateway that channels emotional expression and creative consciousness into a visual language. Primarily, her creative focus regards subjects that obscure reality and question representation by composing diverse visual narratives. Through collecting and recycling organic and synthetic materials, she creates abstract reflections that seek to deconstruct societal archetypes and create a dissociative state of being. These reflections become an intimate representation of how our environments shape our core. This is exhibited through expressionist portraiture and anomalous figures with an ambiguous lens of stylized and structural beauty. Within the juxtaposing form of imagery, the subject of her works asks the audience to question the relationship between the apparent and the hidden; to consider what exists beyond what is seen. She does this in her artistic practice by playing with images that embrace both the familiar and the uncanny. The foundation of her art explores ideas that look to be devoid of conventional adaptations of beauty, femininity and fragility. Emmette’s paintings fashion identities that are reflective of personal intimacies, relationships, and memories of my community. Emmette is a South African and Canadian multidisciplinary artist, now based in Toronto, Ontario. Growing up in British Columbia, her work took inspiration from the nature of B.C and harmonized that with the traditional stylistic practices of South African art; leading her work to utilize obscure materials and recycled resources in her portraiture. During her time in BC, Emmette took courses at Emily Carr University before moving to Toronto and completing her Honors BFA at York University circa 2023. Currently, she is completing her MFA at OCAD in their Interdisciplinary Arts, Media and Design Program.