Emma Tooth “Heredity” At The Outsiders
From the press release:
Following the success of her breakthrough show, “Concilium Plebis,” in which Emma Tooth examined UK street culture through the prism of Renaissance art, “Heredity” sees the artist turn the brush on herself – or rather on her heritage.
While Emma was working on her 2010 book, From Pig Farmers and Showgirls, she uncovered dark, sometimes violent family secrets and legends. These moved her to look deeper through her dusty photo albums and forgotten family ephemera. Using these as source material Emma has created an evocative new body of work. “I also discovered,” she says, “that when youʼre descended from pig farmers and showgirls you can be anything you want to be.”
Alongside her hyper-real oil paintings, which have toured all over the UK and abroad, Emma has developed intricate and sensitive pencil drawings. Each are drawn on antique paper and card speckled and browned with age. She mounts them in vitrine-like frames, becoming reminiscent of botanical specimens. Much of the new work focuses on recurring subjects such as Emma’s paternal grandmother (Queen Bee). Or the extraordinarily time-ravaged features of her maternal grandfather, (The Man With The Fish In His Eyes) whose face is “a tribute to a lifetime of sun and cigarette abuse.”
The Outsiders – Newcastle
Dates: Friday 1st of July 2011 to Sunday 31st of July 2011
