Emma Coyle
Emma Coyle’s Paintings bridge fashion and popular culture and elevate both to the high aesthetic surface of Paint.
I have always produced strong imagery working from a Fine Art background. For my figurative work I am constantly collecting images from print magazines, whether I am working on an on-going series of paintings or not. Every few years I carefully select and group images together to start working on a series of drawings. I work with groups of drawings for months at a time to manipulate the image, and then continue through to painting.
Mixing colours of paint is very important to the progress of each artwork. I mix my paints in tubs which I have used for many years, these contain left over paint from one art work to the next. As I work on each image I minimise details and line.
I am very interested in minimalism, abstraction, strength from line work and composition.
Although my paintings are more commonly compared to Pop Art because of my use of a black ‘comic book’ line, it is in fact a style inspired by the drawings of Picasso and Matisse, whose use of strong line work firstly captured my attention. My use of strong colours does however comes from my interests in 1st wave Pop Art from the 1950’s and from my interest in coloured glass.
From my experiences from living in Dublin, a brief stay in New York City and now being based in London, it has given me the opportunity to find out what mediums and themes that I am most passionate about. I have found that using acrylic {which is quick drying} on board and canvas allows me to achieve the right colour pallet. I use large size boards and canvas to embrace the strong colours and line throughout my work.
In the past I have created series’ of paintings dealing with Japanese advertisements of the 1920’s, Silver Screen film still’s and Fashion photography of the 1960’s.
Over the last 12 years my work has evolved with the use of contemporary images which I have used to forward ideas. I am very interested in portraying figures in a contemporary manner.
My paintings have been compared to many different art genres, from Realist to Pop Art, Fashion Illustration and even Art Deco.
In 2002 I made a photography series of floral images which became a base for my abstract work. In 2016 the body of work progressed to working in 3 dimensional paintings for the first time.
‘Linear Abstraction’ 1.0 and 2.0 were the first combined abstract pieces exploring abstraction within painting. Each piece is a combined artwork consisting of an acrylic painting on board and a plaster form also painted in acrylic.
The body of work started with each photograph being minimally drawn, taking away the 3 dimensional aspect of photography and blown up to size on the board or canvas. A section of this painting is then taken and worked into a 3 dimensional hollow case plaster form. Both pieces are then painted in the same colours making the artwork as one whole piece, changing the viewers’ attention to the space in which they stand not just focusing on the walls of their environment.
The work questions the ideas of what can be considered a painting? How abstract painting is evolving within the art world? And not only how have art genre’s developed in history but how artists can still work on progressing the initial ideas within different art practices to create something of their own.
In 2018 the work progressed again, dropping any 2 dimensional aspect of painting in the gallery space. The work has now become abstract and minimal 3 dimensional paintings which represent the idea of breaking down a painting into its most simplistic form.
I have an interest in contemporary artists such as Miles Aldridge, Claes Oldenburg, James Turrell and Michael Heizer. I also have a strong interest in 19th and 20th century Scandinavian art. Visiting exhibitions in galleries and museums which deal with contemporary art, fashion design, past art movements and cultural history is very important to the production of my work. I find that it allows me to focus on the importance of working with different themes, and always to push the boundaries of my comfort zone.
Coyle has been working within art for 20 years and been based in London since 2006. She has exhibited in numerous galleries and art fairs throughout the city, including exhibiting in the prestigious Mall Galleries.
Her work has appeared in The Times Sunday STYLE supplement, and on the cover of Level 25 art journal in Arizona America and Kapa magazine – the Sunday magazine of Greece’s most prestigious newspaper, Kathimerini.
Coyle’ work was selected by Los Angeles curator Bridget Carron for her collection Power Pop on Saatchi’ online gallery in 2014. Her work has also featured in the Mayfair Times February 2015 and in the August 2015 edition of Avari art magazine in Washington America. In 2016 Coyle’s ‘The Existence’ and the ‘Untitled’ series featured in the German based contemporary art magazine Visions Libres and on the cover of London’s Litro magazine.
More recently in 2017 and 2018 her work has featured in London art magazines What Is Art? And A5. In 2018 Coyle’ painting 12.16.07 won the Artness Magazine cover competition for August’s issue.
Interviews with the artist have been included in Art Reveal, Family Office Elite magazine and Artjobs.com
Earlier in her career in Ireland Coyle exhibited in many galleries and exhibited for the Irish National Portrait exhibition in 2005. Coyle also exhibited for charities in the Royal Hibernian Academy and Adam’s Fine Art auctioneers. Just before moving to London Coyle had solo exhibitions in the Signal Art Centre in Co. Wicklow and the Bank of Ireland’s art centre in Dublin, and was described as ‘one of the city’s most promising new artist’ {Metro Life newspaper- January 2006}, and a ‘rising young artist’ {Irish Independent- May 2006}.
While exhibiting in London since 2006, Coyle has expanded her audience by exhibiting in Los Angeles, and in several galleries in New York City, where her work has been positively received. She has also exhibited in NYC charity events alongside artists such as Jeff Koons, Yoko Ono, Ed Ruscha, Kiki Smith and renowned composer Philip Glass.
Although Coyle’s first interest in art in the late 1990’s included an introduction to 1st wave American Pop Art of the 1950’s, her figurative work focuses to push ideas and produce accomplished paintings of a Fine Art standard using process and execution of ideas.
She is also working on an ongoing abstract project which commenced in 2002. In recent years this project branched into installation work and in 2018 the individual pieces received a special recognition and an award for excellence from Florida art gallery LightSpaceTime.
Emma Coyle’s Curriculum Vitae