Perrotin is pleased to announce its official representation of the British-American artist Emma Webster. After collaboration with the gallery on two successful solo exhibitions in Seoul and Tokyo, as well as a presentation of a monumental painting at the inaugural edition of Paris+ in 2022, Webster prepares to unveil a special presentation with Perrotin during Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2023. The gallery will be representing Emma Webster in France and in Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, and Shanghai.
Emma Webster draws inspirations from a myriad of sources, collaging both visually and semiotically to devise her imagined sceneries. Her debut with the gallery inaugurating Perrotin Dosan Park in Seoul, Illuminarium, derived its title from the latin words of il (bad), lumen (light), and arium (place to observe, such as luminarium and planetarium), encapsulating the artist’s fascination with theatrical illumination that she projects onto her imaginary worlds. The worlds are conceived through Webster’s musings and sketches that function as a background to her sculptural process in virtual reality.
The worlds that she creates in VR serve as a vantage point, encircling the sole viewer with access to the cosmos, Emma Webster. She then translates this space into two dimensions onto the canvas, providing a glimpse into the space from a selected angle. The Dolmens, Webster’s second solo exhibition with Perrotin put a twist on this perspective, evoking trompe l’oeil paintings as she introduces framing as a part of an integral aesthetic device in her work through compositions in which the frames recede seamlessly from the viewer’s space into the picture plane. Complementing this illusory image, the series of works manifest the theme of confined and underground spaces, like the dolmens.
Webster has presented solo exhibitions in Carl Kostyàl, London, Alexander Berggruen, New York, and Stems Gallery, Brussels, followed by Perrotin Seoul (Dosan Park) and Tokyo. Her work is included in the collection of: Columbus Museum of Art, Yuz Museum (Shanghai), Xiao Museum (Suzhou), X Museum (Beijing), Groeninghe Art Collection (Bruges), and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, and Perez Museum (Miami) and more.
Emma Webster (b. 1989) is a graduate of Stanford University (BA, 2011) and Yale University, where she received an MFA in Painting in 2018. In 2021, Webster published Lonescape: Green, Painting, & Mourning Reality, a book which collects, among other things, her musings on landscape and image-making in an increasingly digital world.
photo: Seannie Bryan
