Emma Gardner is an interdisciplinary artist based in Meanjin/Brisbane, Australia. Gardner reworks salvaged, silk and organic textiles, and experiments with the laborious and process-driven techniques of cyanotype, trace-monotype and embroidery. The female nude appears figuratively and performatively in her work as she explores the layered meanings within self-portraiture. Her work is grounded in Contemporary Occultism which emphasises the human connection to natural cycles and rhythms.
Gardner graduated from Queensland College of Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in 2016. Her first solo exhibition, Wildish, toured from Redland Gallery, QLD (2020) to Lismore Regional Gallery, NSW (2021). She has since exhibited, Fictionalish, at Logan Regional Gallery (2023) and participated in multiple collaborative and group exhibitions, including the wonderfully large-scale immersive painting of RMXTV + BAD (Brisbane Art Design) at the Museum of Brisbane, QLD (2021), a satellite event for the Asia Pacific Architecture Festival, Architecture Media at the State Library of Queensland, QLD (2020), and Contemporary work for the screen at D-Lux, Sydney, NSW (2018). Gardner is grateful for a Queensland Art Showcase Program grant, which facilitated key opportunities in her practice, including international travel. She has pursued practice-led research through England, India, Spain, and South Africa; and received further funding from the Sydney Myer Foundation, the Queensland Arts Showcase Program (QASP) and the Australian Government.
