ABOUT

Emilia Bryant is an abstract figurative artist based in West London, United Kingdom. Her practice operates in the space between representation and abstraction, exploring how the body can be both constructed and undone through paint.

While her work is rooted in observation of the human form, it resists the intention to faithfully represent it. Limbs are stretched, cropped, or exaggerated; perspective is destabilised; colour is used not descriptively but emotionally. In this way, the figure becomes a site of tension rather than resolution. Each mark carries both structural and expressive weight, allowing the body to shift between something recognisable and something less certain. The paintings do not settle into a single reading, instead holding a state of in-betweenness that reflects Bryant’s ongoing interest in perception, distortion, and emotional translation.

Across her works, there is a visible return to certain forms and compositions. Hands, feet, and fragmented interiors recur, suggesting a cyclical approach to image-making in which ideas are revisited, reworked, and reinterpreted over time. This repetition is not an attempt at refinement, but an acknowledgement of persistence: that certain ways of seeing and feeling cannot be resolved in a single gesture. The paintings become records of this process, tracing both continuity and change within the artist’s practice.

A recent development in Bryant’s work is the introduction of ink and bleach as primary materials. These works shift the dynamic between control and unpredictability. This material dialogue mirrors a broader enquiry within the work: what remains when an image, or a sense of self, is repeatedly altered. Rather than offering clarity or resolution, these paintings hold onto evidence of their own making, allowing traces of both intention and interruption to remain visible. 

Bryant’s practice is informed by a lineage of artists who have pushed the boundaries of figuration, most notably Willem de Kooning. His 1952 Woman series challenged the perceived obsolescence of the figure, presenting bodies that were simultaneously constructed and destabilised. Similarly, Bryant’s work does not abandon figuration but stretches it, using distortion and material experimentation to extend how the body can be seen and felt.

Her works invite the viewer not to arrive at a fixed interpretation, but to remain within the shifting space the work creates.

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Exhibitions

 

• REVIVE

       28th March 2023

       Patrick studios, East st. Arts, St Mary's Lane, Leeds LS9 7EH

 

• Open Bracket

        6-7th December 2023

        Project space, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University Road, Leeds, LS2 9JT

 

• "POP UP" by community curates

        27-28th April 2024

        Boxpark Wembley 18 Olympic Way, Brent HA9 0JT​

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• IMMERSIVE 

       10-19th May 2024

        The Holy Art Gallery, 21-31 Shacklewell Lane, London E8 2DA

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• SARDINES

       6-16th June 2024

       Project space, School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies, University Road, Leeds, LS2 9JT

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• "Kanvases and Kocktails" by Kapsule Events                                                                                                8th September 2024                                                                                                                                          93 Feet East, 150 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL

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• Graduate Art exhibition 2024 by Candid Arts Trust                                                                                          1st-13th October 2024                                                                                                                                        Candid Art Gallery, 5 Torren Street, London, EC1V 1NQ.

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• RAGE AGAINST THE DYING LIGHT

        3rd -31st January 2025

       Omnibus theatre, 1 Clapham Common, North side, London, SW4 0QW, England

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• ARTEL FEST                                                                                                                                                  28th February-2nd March 2025​​ 57                                                                                                               Old broad street, Shoreditch, London, EC2M 1RX 

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• THE ART CLUB COLLECTIVE 

        29th - 3rd November 2025

       The Old waiting room of Peckham Rye Station.

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• Emilia Bryant; A retrospective exhibition

        24th - 29th April 2026

       The Pasmore Gallery, Grove Hill, Harrow, London.

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