Emily Humphries

The Foundlings Hospital
2 Oil on canvas 45x30 approx

Cost
Contact the artist or AILAE
+33(0)689 0667479
+39 3472972848

From an Australian perspective the Renaissance still seems to sit there ruling as the divine and defining characteristic of European culture.
Brunelleschi’s Ospedale degli Innocenti has always beguiled me. Here reason and imagination entwine creating a poetic and exquisitely balanced form.
The building embraces order and symmetry, man, reason and measured thought and inspires the feeling that everything is possible and that all is safe and well in the universe. It seems to me to make a temple of reason and order.
Confusing for a long time to white Australia. Our very rich and completely different Aboriginal family cracks open a timeless space. A liquid place in which spirits roam with beasts, form landscapes and fold like sand into the myths of man . Here man becomes the guardian of these ancient truths and customs. He does not govern or construct. Architecture is obsolete. The laws are primordial or more accurately, non linear.
In my exploration of the relationship between these two very differently-formed cultures it was a great joy to retrace Brunelleschi's beautifully harmonious work. To take his lovely little babies on their powdery cradle like discs and set them afloat on a sea of spawning sealife ; corrupted or free? Wedded by a chaos of untameable and natural force.

Emily was born in London in 1965 and migrated as a child to Australia with her family in 1970. She was educated in Melbourne and at Geelong Grammar School in Corio where she received distinctions for English, Music and the Major prize for poetry.
In 1983 she moved to Florence where she studied Drawing and Language.
Emily returned to Australia in late ‘83 making a resolve to commit herself to art.
In 1986 Ruth Prowse, gallery director of Gallery Huntly took Emily into her “stable” selling numerous works for her and including her in a major exhibition alongside Rick Amour and Brian Dunlop as well as other established Australian artists.
In 1989-90 she studied film practice and theory making several short films whilst continuing to draw.
In 1992 Emily held her first solo exhibition subsequently following on to study etching, lithography and art theory at the Victorian College of the Arts, Where she received a National Galleries Trustees Award for her work.
In 1995 Emily married Melbourne based composer John Phillips and in1998 after having two more children. Emily and her family settled in rural south west France.
In 2000 Emily she returned Australia buying a small property on the Mornington peninsula, returning to Europe for a six month stint in 2003 to accompany her husband on the tour of a performance based on his music.
Emily balances her passion for her children with her need to make art.
Since re settling in Melbourne she has worked on numerous commissions and her work can be found in serious collections around the globe.
Emily is currently working on towards two separate projects at the moment and plans an exhibition in Melbourne for October this year.

Education and Awards
Educated at Geelong Grammar School, Corio
Where she received the prize for poetry.

1983      Studied language and Art history in Florence.
1990-91      film making studies. Footscray technical college
1992-’95      Bachelor study with major in Printmaking. Victorian College of the Arts
1992      Awarded National Galleries Trustees Award

Group Exhibitions
1989      Gallery Huntly, Ruth Prowes, Canberra.
1991      Sun storm Galleries, Darwin.
1993      Time Gallery Richmond. (works on paper)
1993-94      VCA Gallery Melbourne
1999      Karen Peterson Galleries, Aubeterre, France
2006      Charles Smith Gallery Fitzroy (mixed media)
2007      Monash, Prato, Italy

Solo Exhibitions
1992      Davis st. South Yarra.
1994      Stuart Gerstman Galleries Melbourne.
1995      Avoca st. South Yarra , Melbourne.
2001      Rosalind Hollinrake Residence, South Yarra
2002      Albert Park Gallery, Melbourne

Emily lives in Melbourne with her husband and three children. Her works are in numerous collections around the world.

Contact
emilyhumphries@lycos.com
www.freewebs.com/emilyhumphries

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