Martine Emdur’s new series of works show at Scott Livesey Galleries from March 12.
A series of new works from artist Martine Emdur, seductive yet strangely weightless, full of light and water, will be on display at Scott Livesey Galleries from March 12.
Born in Sydney in 1966, Emdur began her professional painting career in 1997 and has since exhibited extensively with solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia and overseas.
Her work has received critical acclaim, garnering a number of prestigious art awards along the way. She has been a finalist in 2001 and 2003 for the Archibald Prize with portraits of comedian Peter Berner and actor Claudia Karvan (respectively), and in 2002 Emdur was awarded the Kings School Art Prize along with the Peoples’ Choice Award.
Emdur is known for her large-scale oil paintings that depict figures submerged under water – often nude, floating and weightless, surrendered to both the pleasures and the mystery of water. Her technical mastery allows her to capture this sense of strange blue ocean, with the reflecting sunlight filtering through the water’s surface to the darker depths below.
There is a freedom in these compositions; Emdur’s figures float in and out of foreground and background, almost calming the viewer into a sense of therapeutic relaxation – almost, for there is always the element of water lurking, sustaining the bodies, powerfully in control while at the same time indulging their pleasure.
Martine Emdur: New Works will be on display at Scott Livesey Galleries, 909a High St, Armadale, from March 12 to April 5.
Images:
1. Martine Emdur, Untitled VIII. Oil on linen, 51 x 51 cm
2. Martine Emdur, Aquamour. Oil on linen, 198 x 162 cm
3. Martine Emdur, Untitled V. Oil on linen, 51 x 51 cm
