Rory Emmett Bio
Born 1992, Cape Town, South Africa
Lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
Emmett completed his BAFA at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT in 2014, where he majored in painting and won the Judy Steinberg Painting Prize in his final year and is currently a resident at Greatmore Studios teaching part-time basis at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.
Emmett works in a de-constructivist approach to the language, performance and alchemy of painting. Through various devices within the lense of painting, he attempts to explore dominant discourses surrounding South Africa’s growing democracy and somewhat idealistic notions of ‘Rainbowism’.
Emmett deconstructs various ideological and material implications of colour, referencing the personal and political by working with what he finds around and within himself as his most immediate point of departure. Consulting Eurocentric ideals of beauty and success that perpetually infiltrate the contemporary African landscape, Emmett attempts to draw attention to that which is sometimes taken for granted and "normalized Selected projects include: debut solo exhibition titled "Concerning Alchemy" at the Association for Visual Arts Gallery/AVA (2017), Performance/video installation at the Zeitz MOCAA titled "I FEEL MOST COLOURED WHEN I AM THROWN AGAINST A SHARP BLACK AND WHITE BACKGROUND", as part of "The Main Complaint" groupshow curated by Michaela Limberis (2018-2019), group exhibition at the Osage Foundation in Hong Kong titled "Present Passing: South by Southeast", curated by Natasha Becker and Patrick D. Flores (2019).
Lives and works in Cape Town, South Africa
Emmett completed his BAFA at Michaelis School of Fine Art, UCT in 2014, where he majored in painting and won the Judy Steinberg Painting Prize in his final year and is currently a resident at Greatmore Studios teaching part-time basis at the Michaelis School of Fine Art.
Emmett works in a de-constructivist approach to the language, performance and alchemy of painting. Through various devices within the lense of painting, he attempts to explore dominant discourses surrounding South Africa’s growing democracy and somewhat idealistic notions of ‘Rainbowism’.
Emmett deconstructs various ideological and material implications of colour, referencing the personal and political by working with what he finds around and within himself as his most immediate point of departure. Consulting Eurocentric ideals of beauty and success that perpetually infiltrate the contemporary African landscape, Emmett attempts to draw attention to that which is sometimes taken for granted and "normalized Selected projects include: debut solo exhibition titled "Concerning Alchemy" at the Association for Visual Arts Gallery/AVA (2017), Performance/video installation at the Zeitz MOCAA titled "I FEEL MOST COLOURED WHEN I AM THROWN AGAINST A SHARP BLACK AND WHITE BACKGROUND", as part of "The Main Complaint" groupshow curated by Michaela Limberis (2018-2019), group exhibition at the Osage Foundation in Hong Kong titled "Present Passing: South by Southeast", curated by Natasha Becker and Patrick D. Flores (2019).
Rory Emmett - Perceptive Remnant, 2019 acrylic on canvas 90cm x 60cm
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Rory Emmett - 1.2 'The New Cla$$ic: Vol1', 2019, Goucache and acrylic on magazine pages, 24cm x 33cm
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Rory Emmett - Hi-viz Figure I, 2019, Oil and acrylic on canvas, 120cm x 150cm
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