Emily Pope (b. 1993, Canada) is a painter who lives and works in Toronto. Pope’s work explore experiences of womanhood, often pairing her body with symbolic objects, elements, and settings to create a personal body of work that brings life to the ethereal world she dreams about. Her work explores the fragility of existence and reflects on the complexities of human nature.
With a background in the film industry as an art director and graphic designer, Pope’s approach to painting is constructed with careful curations of scenery and character analysis through a cinematic lens, often painting series of works that create a narrative representing her artistic beliefs. Evocations of harmony and balance co-exist through her sombre colour palettes, encouraging viewers to contemplate complex emotions of the human experience.
Her works are conceived through illustrations and sketches, often creating a collage on Photoshop first before painting on the canvas. The forms in her paintings are based on her own self-portraits or through imagination, taking inspiration from Baroque, Rococo, and Surrealist paintings.
She has participated in group exhibitions including ‘The Sudden Opening of Little Leaves’ at Pictorum Gallery (London, 2023), ‘Flowers & Thorns’ at Eve Leibe Gallery (Turin, 2023), ‘Eve Presents Number Three’ at Eve Leibe Gallery (London, 2023), ‘Body of Work’ at Cry Baby Gallery (Toronto, 2023), and ‘Looking Glass’ at Dahlia SL Gallery (Prince Edward County, 2022). She has also shown at art fairs including Art021 Shanghai and Art Central Hong Kong (both 2023).