| 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, 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. I flee my urban reality by making dense, tangled drawings of wild corners and places. Viewers are invited into a world that is both inviting and ambiguous; the drawings become conduits for imaginative escape. I am presently working on a series of works in which the act of drawing starts with the body: den-building within the landscape. I have been travelling to the wild landscapes of the Wye Valley, an area renowned for its foundational relationship with British Romanticism. There, I have been physically making scenes and temporary structures to draw from. Common throughout my practice is the creation of immersive drawings, and this happens in two ways. Firstly, immersive in the sense of their composition, alluring the viewer in and beyond: perhaps towards a horizon, a dark void, an enclosure, or an intriguing structure. The viewer is always moving towards something or through something. Secondly, immersive in the sense that the act of making them is all-consuming and durational: dense scenes built through repetitive mark-making and obsessive detail. The results are drawings that absorb the viewer into their creation. I listen to music while I draw, and sometimes lyrics repeat in my head and creep in as a title. These titles play with ambiguity and vulnerability. In this sense, the landscape becomes a metaphor for a lover, and in turn brings into focus our own relationship with nature in the Anthropocene. 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 2026 ART IN MAY, LSG, London 2026 THIS YEAR’S MODEL, Studio 1.1, London 2025 WINTER, 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, Studio 1.1, London 2023 SFSA DRAWING OPEN, London 2023 THIS YEARS MODEL, Studio 1.1, London 2022 THIS YEARS MODEL, 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 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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E M M A COOP 