Emilia Solek

Art has always been the most natural way I know to make sense of what I feel, and what I see around me. Most of what you'll find here are my drawings and paintings, portraits mainly, where I try to capture something honest: an emotion, a mood, sometimes something quietly unsettling, drawn both from within myself and from the people and world around me.

I'm Polish-born but London has been my home for 25 years now, and I think that mix of two places has quietly shaped how I see things. My roots are actually in textile art, I trained in artistic weaving back in Poland, and even though what you see here is mostly drawing and painting, that early love of texture never really left me. It shows up elsewhere in my practice too, in handmade sculptural work I'm hoping to bring here soon.

Art has genuinely kept me going through hard times, it pulled me out of depression more than once, and creating still feels like the most grounding thing I do. That's part of why I'm studying psychology now too, I'm drawn to understanding that connection between creativity and wellbeing more deeply.

I exhibited as part of Contemporary, Fifth Edition at Boomer Gallery, London, and there's always something new in progress.

School of Fine Arts, Poland — Diploma in Artistic Weaving (5-year programme)

Contemporary, Fifth Edition — Boomer Gallery, London, UK, 2023 (Group Exhibition)