&Gallery presents Jana Emburey’s solo exhibition Elemental. In this series of paintings, Jana explores the environmental conditions and changes around us.
The artist was born in 1979 in Bratislava, Slovakia. She is a graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University (2012) and the Academy of Arts and Crafts in Bratislava (1997). Her work can be found in corporate, museum and private collections in the UK, Europe and America. She lives and works in the Scottish Highlands.
Jana works intuitively and instinctively; letting the process take over her image making. She often starts by working on the floor, where she layers diluted acrylic paint onto raw canvas and calico. She allows the paint to seep in and manipulates it with a brush, her hands and by lifting the fabric in different direction. This method gives the paint autonomy to take on a life of its own. There is a balance between her decisions and interventions, and allowing the materials to behave naturally.
“I find I have to live with my paintings for a while, to accept what happened, what emerged through the process and time. Often they are put away for a few weeks or even months and re-visited, sometimes re-worked, sometimes just a few marks added. There are times a work had time to rest and in a way manifest and complete itself.”
These works extend the concepts of the natural macro and micro worlds, as well as interconnectivity and oneness, from Jana’s series Sweet Oblivion. Elemental draws on the notion of being and the connection between the intentional and the accidental.