Emma Berkery

New paintings on both canvas and board furthering the artist’s investigations of the psychology of hope and its connection to our experience of life. Using influences from Joan Mitchell’s emotionally intense paintings currently on display in the Tate Modern, Berkery brings movement and spatial depth to these works, with deliberate intension to suggest emotional landscapes. A selection of these pieces formed the artist's 2024 exhibition in Dublin 'It Might Be Hope...Who Can Tell?'

For exhibition or sales enquires please contact the artist.

Inspired by her father’s eternal optimism, these paintings investigate the meaning and impact of positivity in the context of the increasingly tumultuous global situation.

Looking to the vast skies of the Belfast Hills, the artist was reminded of her father’s refrain during wet childhood holidays in the west of Ireland - ‘don’t worry its breaking beyond.’

A series of small artworks on board based on research of the Abstract Expressionist painter Lee Krasner. Between 1953 and 1955 Krasner made bold, graphic, collage based canvases that embraced a cut-up style mixed with painting and expressive brushwork.

After studying Krasner’s life and work, the artist was particularly drawn to 'Milkweed' a piece of mixed media work measuring 209.23 x 146.69 cm completed in 1955. In response to this work Emma completed a number of exploratory sketchbook collages on paper. These were then further explored resulting in the 9 artworks on board presented here.

A bold series of works challenging both artist and viewer. Colour is powerfully evocative and speaks directly to our emotions. In this series of work, while referencing and being challenged by the Black Squares of Malevich, the artist draws directly on the symbolism of colour within the writings of Clarissa Pinkola Estés, a Jungian psychoanalyst. Black features often ..it symbolises that the light will come, that truths hidden will become clear, it is both a refuge and a shadow. White, creates the promise of new beginnings, that voids will be filled, that the soul can be nourished.

The investigation of this is presented to the viewer as a conversation. A conversation imbued with hope and the challenge for us all to think more deeply about our lives. The artworks resist singular, interpretations, having instead multiple readings which are revealed over time.

The works are evocative of inner and outer landscapes, they ask questions of their audience and seek to stimulate our subconscious.

The production of these artworks was supported by the Arts Council NI through SIAP.

These works emerged from a period of intense research on the North Coast of Ireland over a number of years. The artist spent time on residency in Cushendall and took many visits to Tory and Rathlin Islands.

Oil paintings on canvas, they capture the interior and exterior landscapes experienced by the artist as she immersed herself in the wildness of the coast in all seasons.

Sometimes works are created that don’t fit into a singular body of work. They just arise out of a need to paint, to capture a moment, a thought, an emotion. These are some of those works.

These works were developed during a residency on Oxford Island Nature Reserve. They evidence a new departure in the artist’s way of working, bringing her photo-graphical research images and drawing to the fore in these mixed media collages on paper.

Expressive, colourful and thought provoking, the works explore human relationships with the natural environment. The artist leaves her ‘mark’ on and within her artworks as she draws on nature to heal our souls.

All works are beautifully framed with double thickness mounts in thin wooden black frames.

Birth, death, spirituality. All the big questions came to the fore for the artist following a residency in India. From near death experiences to nature biting back, the intensity of experiencing a land of extremes - ancient cultures & traditions clashing with modern day India inspired the artist to create dozens of paintings.

A selection of works commissioned by private collectors. For commissioning enquiries contact the artist