10 Questions with Emi Avora

Emi Avora is a Greek-born, UK-trained (Oxford University and Royal Academy Schools), and Singapore-based artist. She has exhibited worldwide with solo projects, including the National Theatre of Greece Athens, South Square Arts Centre, UK, The Apartment Gallery, Athens, Greenberg Van Doren Gallery, New York, and Gallery Truebenbach, Cologne. She has participated in a number of group shows, including Studio Voltaire, London, The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, The Whitechapel Gallery, London, and the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki. Her work can be found in private as well as public collections in Europe, Asia, and the USA, including The Wonderful Fund collection, Marsh collection, and Central Bank of Greece collection. She has also been an Elizabeth Greenshields recipient, and her work has been in various publications, including ArtMaze Magazine, Create Magazine, Artist Friend, the New York Times and Defining the Contemporary, and The Whitechapel in Association with Sotheby’s. She is one of the 2020 Delphian Gallery open call group exhibition winners, and she exhibited in Singapore at Nouri/Appetite, Singapore (solo), as well as JW projects and Art Seasons Gallery (solo) Singapore. Her work was recently featured in a show at D contemporary London. Current group shows are at A66 Gallery, Mallorca, and Yudian Gallery, Hangzhou.

www.emiavora.com | @erasmiavora

ARTIST STATEMENT

Born in Greece and currently based in Singapore, Emi Avora is drawing subject matter from her everyday life in Asia as well as her Greek ancestry with a focus on a combination of interior spaces, still life, and landscape. By entering a dialog with earlier historical canons, her paintings ponder on how to reconcile our everyday existence with larger cosmic forces that govern our environment, our relationships, our past, and our future. The search for her own rediscovered ‘place’ and ‘identity’, as well as curiosity for the shapes that surround her, are elements that occupy her compositions. Often, her paintings present encounters or ‘conversations’ between seemingly disparate objects or symbols. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes intense, and with the use of light on the driving seat, her work employs a range of heightened palettes to allow the viewer space for re-invention, creating a gap between looking and making, between the real and the imaginary. By the act of re-imagining, Avora enters into an escapist realm, albeit parallel to the real.

Everyday observations blend into complex formations and become exaggerated through the use of colour and change of scale, focusing on what surprises her or grasps her attention. Reality is juxtaposed with mythology, and observed situations are woven into fictional compositions that allow for a multitude of readings. Equally, the very process of her mark-making opens up a platform to investigate painting’s power to transcend imagery by breaking it down to the basics of colour, shape, pattern, and composition.

Unbearable truth, acrylic and oil on canvas, 115x170 cm, 2024 © Emi Avora

INTERVIEW

When did you first get interested in art, and how did you develop into the artist you are today?

My father is also a painter, so art and painting were part of my whole life in a way. I was spending time with my father in his studio as a child. I had no idea how special that was at the time, but I guess it influenced me profoundly as I was growing up. However, I only decided to pursue art more seriously when I was a teenager and started preparing to study Fine art.

You were trained at prestigious institutions like Oxford University and the Royal Academy Schools. How did your academic background influence your approach to art? Are there any specific lessons or experiences from your studies that still resonate in your practice today?

Indeed, I had some amazing tutors over the years at the art schools I attended. Fantastic artists taught us how to think about our practice and how to find our own voice- how to pursue our ideas and create our own universe. My peers were also very important and influential to me- as we were learning from each other as much as we were from the tutors. At times, the group crits and tutorials at art school were difficult, but I guess they are also an intense testing ground for figuring out how much one wants to be doing what they are doing. Rather than a style or technical skills, the art school taught me how to proceed with integrity in my practice.

Small Movements on a hot day, acrylic and oil on canvas, 120x100 cm, 2024 © Emi Avora

Your work draws inspiration from your Greek ancestry and your everyday life in Asia. How do these two worlds come together in your artistic practice?

The painting becomes an amalgamation of things observed, things remembered, and fictional elements. I live in Asia at the moment, so my observations are mainly from my surroundings and my interests here. However, greek myths, as well as some more generic characteristics like the strong Greek light, are integral to my work. I like to think of my paintings as meeting points, spaces for encounters between disparate and sometimes even conflicting powers, different cultures, and different times. I would like them to create conversations and allow space for a complex and multi-layered universe.

Your art often enters into a dialogue with historical art canons while focusing on everyday events. How do you strike a balance between referencing the past and creating something more contemporary?

I think it is impossible not to reference art history as a contemporary painter- art history is rooted in our subconscious, and it is not easy to ignore it. So, I choose to learn from the past while keeping a critical eye on the way art history has been passed on. I am also very keen to learn more about artifacts and artists that we have never talked about in the West. At the same time, I think the work is more honest and relevant if we draw inspiration from contemporaneity — everyday situations, motherhood, and ordinary surroundings become the stepping stones for my compositions. I feel we all have (or should have) a real life, one of everyday chores and everyday existence, and a fictional life, one that transports us to fictional spaces and parallel realms. I try to place my work between those two.

You frequently depict interior spaces, still life, and landscapes. Can you tell us more about your choice of these subjects? What draws you to these motifs, and how do they reflect your personal experiences or broader themes in your work?

I am interested in creating a psychological 'space' more than anything. Interiors often blend with exteriors, and still-life objects become part of the composition. They help me punctuate those 'spaces' and create immersive environments. I am also very interested in things that surround me, ordinary and often neglected corners and objects that exist in the periphery of our existence. I tend to include those in my compositions, too. Before coming to Singapore, I was very interested in the idea of the 'baroque' in architecture and how it translates into brushstrokes. In the tropics, nature has replaced the baroque in my work. In a way, tropical nature has many similarities to the 'baroque'; it is excessive, overwhelming, and complex.

The juxtaposition of mythology and everyday life is a recurring theme in your work. How do you choose the symbols and objects that populate your compositions, and what is their significance to you?

Regardless of whether it is a still life, interior, or landscape, I tend to create a fictional space where the viewer can enter into a visual journey and meander through the painting toward an exit point beyond it. I am fascinated by the juxtapositions of high and low, so often in the work, you might find depictions of ancient vases together with everyday objects like plastic bottles and traffic cones. This accumulation of objects that don't always go together creates interesting associations and sometimes even humorous encounters. I imagine conversations between them.

End of a Beginning, acrylic and oil on canvas, 120x100 cm, 2024 © Emi Avora

Your paintings have a recognizable color palette that creates a dreamlike and surreal atmosphere. How do you choose your colors? What do they symbolize for you, and how do they shape the perception you want to convey to viewers?

I am very conscious of light and how I can create the perception of light through color. I also tend to stain the canvas and build up my colors with thin layers, so although I use strong hues, the paint looks like it is emerging from within the canvas. I feel this is what gives the dreamlike atmosphere a gradual built up. I also do not reference some realistic compositions at all. I treat the painting as an abstract painting, so the colors do not necessarily correlate- hence creating an otherworldliness, a realm where things might be recognizable but not as we expect them to be.

Speaking of the viewers, what is the ultimate message you want to convey with your work? What do you want viewers to experience when approaching your paintings?

I believe that because of the way painting operates (its fluidity and transformative power), it can bridge our everyday world, the world we perceive and operate in, with the hidden, parallel worlds that each one of us occupies in our heads.Ultimately, I endeavour to give the viewer a space to dream, using the observed and sometimes the mundane to find a portal to a parallel universe where everything is possible.

A Siren on the Balcony, acrylic and oil on canvas, 150x150 cm, 2024 © Emi Avora

El Mundo Magico, acrylic and oil on canvas, 150x150 cm, 2024 © Emi Avora

As an artist who has exhibited internationally, from Greece to the UK, New York, and Singapore, how has the diverse range of audiences impacted the reception of your work? Do you find the different cultural contexts influence how your art is perceived?

Each audience projects their own feelings and background onto the work- the work also evolves depending on where I make it and the period of my life. So yes, I guess a Singaporean will perceive my work differently than a person from Europe, for example. However, they will both have connection points with the work and can both appreciate it for different reasons. Ultimately, though, it is an emotional response that I am seeking and that sometimes doesn't have to do with geography or cultural context.

Are there any upcoming projects or themes you're particularly excited to explore? How do you see your work evolving in the near future?

I tend to evolve the work organically, and my themes appear gradually. Lately, I have become more and more interested in the power of symbols and have seen them entering my compositions more. I am also increasingly thinking of our environment, the excessive overheating of the planet, and how we will have to evolve within it. This has also prompted me to explore new media that are less damaging, like natural pigments and nontoxic ways of painting. I am also continuing to work in ceramics alongside painting and hoping to merge the two practices even more.

Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.

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