About

Emily Conlon is a multidisciplinary artist and educator based in Windsor, Ontario. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Saskatchewan and a BFA Honours in Visual Arts from the University of Windsor. Emily is on the board of directors for Artcite Inc. and has exhibited her work across Canada and internationally. Most recently, she was an exhibiting artist at Nuit Blanche Saskatoon and the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space.

Artist Statement

My practice is motivated by a desire to document personal experiences within natural spaces to serve as a form of remembrance and preservation. I interpret my surroundings similarly to how one recalls memories – non-linear, fragmented, concealed, and sometimes reduced to shapes and patterns. My work aims to translate states of decay and impermanence into something tangible and reimagined.

I primarily work with printmaking and drawing, mediums that allow my process to be intuitive and take shape as a form of note-taking and personal reflection. The physicality of printmaking and the act of embedding an image into a surface allows me to transform these fleeting experiences into something tactile and permanent. Repetition and pattern allow me to tie my work to bodily rhythms such as steps, breaths, or heart beats, further connecting the subject matter to the passage of time and the human experience. My work engages with a push and pull between presence and absence. While placing importance on what is seen, I also acknowledge what is missing or eroded. Negative space and absence of imagery allow space for the viewers to shape their own narratives.

By honing in on overlooked pockets of natural spaces and intangible moments and viewing them through the lens of memory, I aim to garner closer relationships between the viewer and their surroundings and create a visual language that has the capacity to generate new narratives beyond initial encounters.