Neil Emmerson Selection
(oriental flag)
1999, engraving on blanket, approx 230 x 160cm
(surrender) and (penance)
1999, installation shot
(falling boy)
1999, engraving on blanket, approx 230 x 160cm
IWYS (cat. 18)
1999, unique state print, photolithography and stenciled woodblock, 40 x 30cm
IWYS (cat. 20)
1999, unique state print, photolithography and stenciled woodblock, 40 x 30cm
Biography and Qualifications
Currently lives and works in Newcastle
Master of Visual Arts, Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, 2001 Lecturer at the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield, NSW
Description of Work
Neil Emmerson is a Newcastle-based printmaker, critically acclaimed for innovative and challenging explorations of his medium. Often working in unique state rather than multiple images, and with materials including printed and shaved blankets, laser-cut perspex and lithographed handkerchiefs, Emmerson's commitment to printmaking may be explained more by its connotations of intimacy ("would you like to come up and see my etchings?") and subversion than its potential for multiplicity.
Emmerson's work aims to occupy shifting and multi-faceted positions, attempting to confuse historically established dichotomies - public/private, east/west, political/personal. A consistent tactic used by the artist is the layering of forms to allow rich, associative readings within and between his work, bringing together iconographies whose relationships are not obvious; European fin-de-siecle decadence meets the Chinese socialist revolution, for example. Another repeated concern is the means through which acceptable masculine identity is constructed and circumscribed, and the possibility of finding slippages around these orthodoxies.
Awards/Exhibitions
Emmerson has held around twenty solo exhibitions since 1983, including six with William Mora Galleries. He has held numerous lecturer, board and committee positions. Recent residencies and exhibitions include:
- Artist in Residence, School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra, 1999
- Artist in Residence, Nagasawa Art Park Pilot Program, Awaji Island, Japan, 1999
- National Works on Paper, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Mornington, 2002
- Uncommon Worlds: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2000
- (surrender, penance, IWYS), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2000
- The Expanded Field, Monash University, Melbourne, 1998
- Above and Beyond: Austral/ Asian Interactions, National Touring Exhibition, 1997
- Australian Perspecta, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995
- Aspects of Australian Printmaking, 1984-1994, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1995
Collections
Newcastle Region Art Gallery; Maitland City Art Gallery; Baker and McKenzie, Melbourne; AMP; Monash University, Melbourne; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; Ian Potter Museum of Art, University of Melbourne; Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Deakin University, Melbourne; private collections around Australia
Selected bibliography
ANDERSON, Peter, "Above and beyond", Art + Text, Number 56, 1997, p 97
EWINGTON, Julie, "Island to Island: Australia to Chenju", Chenju Pre-Biennial exhibition catalogue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 1995
McDONALD, Ewen, The Expanded Field, ex cat, Monash University Gallery, Melbourne, 1998
SCHUBERT, Robert, "Cultural Revelation", World Art, Number 2, 1995, p 34
