About

Emma Coop was born in 1976 in Manchester, she undertook her BA in Interactive Arts at MMU graduating in 2000. She moved to London in 2002 to study Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, completing her PG Dip in 2003, & MA in 2004. Recent solo exhibitions are: HULME HABITATS, The Modernist, Manchester 2024 & I LIVE ANOTHER LIFE, Studio 1.1 London, 2022. Group exhibitions include: The London Group Open 2025, John Ruskin Prize 2025, 168th RWA Open 2021, Creekside Open 2019 & Until it Makes Sense at Thaddeus Ropac 2006. Work is held in private collections Internationally.


ARTIST STATEMENT
I have an affinity with nature and the elements despite living in cities all my life. My drawings document a desire to seek an escape: to turn in the opposite direction, to escape edges, things and people.

Much of my work is set within a local park of overgrown woodland in South East London. Within this park’s landscape away from the neat pathways, there are traces left that hint of play. From trodden tracks, secret dens, signs of excess and the sleepy hide-aways of the homeless, an escape from the urban lingers in the shadows. 

My drawings capture familiar yet ambiguous scenes: pathways dissolving into shadow, secret dens, and the spaces between the bushes. They invite viewers into a world that is both inviting and potentially unsettling, becoming conduits for imaginative escape.

Graphite drawn marks are gestural, rhythmical and intuitive, amalgamating into detailed dense scenes. There is a restlessness in the work, a drive to create by tenacity which builds a mounting tension akin to an Antonioni film—imagine the amplified sound of the wind whilst the camera forensically roves over grainy black and white landscapes to build suspense from ‘nothing’ such as in Blow Up and L’Aventura.

I listen to music while I draw and sometimes lyrics repeat in my head and creep in as a title—especially the angsty-heartache of Robert Smith. These titles play with ambiguity and vulnerability. The landscape in this sense becomes a metaphor for a lover, and in turn brings into focus our own relationship with nature in the Anthropocene age.


SOLO SHOWS
2024 HULME HABITATS, The Modernist, Manchester
2022 I LIVE ANOTHER LIFE, Studio 1.1, London
2021 SLIPPING OUT OF MY ORDINARY EYES, Gallery of The Giants, Wiltshire
2018 ON THE EDGE, Lodestone Creative, Bowling, Scotland
2002 THERE TO HERE, Tmesis Gallery, Manchester
2001 INTERIOR LANDSCAPE, Glass Box Gallery Salford


SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
UPCOMING 2025 WINTER group show, Linden Hall Studios, Deal
2025 The London Group Open, Copeland Gallery, London
2025 (Un)Nested, SafeHouse 1, London
2025 John Ruskin Prize, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
2025 Loveshack, hArtslane Gallery, London
2024 LIGHT UP Winter Menagerie, Tondo Cosmic, London
2024 All I Want is… Peace, hArtslane Gallery, London
2024 THIS YEARS MODEL:1, Studio 1.1, London
2023 SFSA DRAWING OPEN, London
2023 THIS YEARS MODEL:2, Studio 1.1, London
2022 THIS YEARS MODEL:3, Studio 1.1, London
2022 ANOTHER GREEN WORLD, Art Hub Gallery, London
2022 PASTEL SOCIETY, Mall galleries, London
2021 THIS YEAR’S MODEL, Studio 1.1 Gallery, London
2021 I DIDN’T LICK IT, Bruton Museum, Somerset
2021 Cancelled WALES CONTEMPORARY, Oxo Tower Gallery, London
2021 RWA 168th ANNUAL OPEN, RWA, Bristol
2020 WALES CONTEMPORARY, Waterfront Gallery, Milford Haven
2020 DRAWING BEYOND ITSELF, Air Gallery, Manchester
2020 DRAWING BEYOND ITSELF, virtual show, http://www.artsteps.com
2020 FERENS OPEN, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
2019 WE EACH HAVE OUR OWN LANDSCAPE, Lewisham Art House, London
2019 BLUE MIND, 3rd on 3rd Gallery, Jamestown, NY
2019 CREEKSIDE OPEN: selected by BRIAN GRIFFITHS, APT Gallery, London
2018 EDITION 5: HIDE AND SEEK, 44AD Gallery, Bath
2018 ART FEAST, Someth1ng Gallery, London
2018 THRESHOLDS, Gonzo Unit, Thessaloniki, Greece
2018 MURMURATION, ICE Space, Bath Fringe, Bath
2018 SIGHTLINES, Christmas Steps Gallery, Bristol
2017 THE SAME DEEP WATER, The Great Medical Disaster, Manchester
2017 EVOLVE DAMN IT, Camberwell Arts Festival, London
2016 PROOF, Art Hub Gallery, London
2016 THIS YEAR’S MODEL: DEEP SPACE, Studio 1.1, London
2016 RE:COUNT, Someth1ng Gallery, London
2016 LOOKING UP, Studio 1.1, London
2016 SIXTY, Art Athina, Art Fair, Athens
2016 SIXTY, Lubomirov / Angus Hughes, London
2016 KEEP ME POSTED, Art Hub Gallery, London
2016 COVER VERSION, Studio 73 Gallery, London
2016 LOVE & LOSS WE’RE ALL JUST ANIMALS, Someth1ng Gallery, London
2016 ART CONVERTERS, Studio 1.1, London
2015 SEASONAL FAIR, Chalton Gallery, London
2015 SEASONAL FAIR, Someth1ng Gallery, London
2015 BAZAAR, Lubomirov / Angus Hughes, London
2015 ART NOUVEAU, Studio 73 Gallery, London
2015 UNTITLED, Someth1ng Gallery, London
2015 CHEMCRAFT, Espacio Gallery, London
2015 THE PRINT EXHIBITION, ArtHub Gallery, London
2006 UNTIL IT MAKES SENSE, Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery, Paris
2006 UNTIL IT MAKES SENSE, Seventeen Gallery, London
2006 WHO CARES ABOUT GREEK ART?, Independent space, Athens
2005 I.E. Video Archive, Independent space, London
2005 HER UP STAIRS, Open studio, Temporary Contemporary, London
2004 Video Symposium, Rhotas 2 Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
2004 Experimental Video Art, Puratha University, Thailand
2001 SUMMER BIENNALE, International 3 Gallery, Manchester
2000 YOU ARE HERE, Holden Gallery, Manchester
2000 MAN MOMA, International 3 Gallery, Manchester


RESIDENCIES/ PROJECTS
2021 Residency at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve, London
2021 Bruton Correspondence Course, Bruton
2018 Residency at Lodestone Creative, Bowling, Scotland
2017 Great Medical Disaster, with Darren Nixon, Manchester

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