Nunnery Café Exhibition: Emily Vanns

Nunnery Café is open Mon-Sat 9am-4pm, Sun 10am-4pm

“…the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace.”  – Gaston Bachelard. The Poetics Of Space, 1958.

For the eighth edition of our Nunnery Café Exhibition series, we’re proudly showcasing a new body of paintings and lino prints from east London-based artist Emily Vanns.

Through the exhibition aptly named Bliss, Emily delves deep into her ongoing fascination with our relationship to interior spaces through the lens of the home.

“I have always had a fascination with interiors and possessions. I view the objects that people choose to keep in their homes as almost talismanic. The home to me is a place full of contradictions. It is the most private of places but at the same time a stage set where we proudly display our most precious objects and memories. It can be a refuge or a place of confinement. Magical and banal.”

Emily Vanns

The interior spaces created in Emily’s paintings and lino prints zoom in on the intimate corners of a fantasy home, with a certain polished and untouched quality. To some this may feel idyllic, to others staged or forced. Indications of human presence are visible – for example, a freshly lit candle or a steaming cup of coffee – but there is nobody in sight.

“I am interested in creating intimate and private moments in my work. I want the viewer to feel as if they are in solitude. Depending on the observer, this could be a cosy or a claustrophobic experience. Each space shows the corner of a window which is a very important symbol in my work. It suggests a bigger world than the paper or canvas can contain. Something just out of reach.”

Emily Vanns

An important theme that is central to Emily’s work is plants.

“To me, a man-made space without plants feels dead. Plants suggest that a space is occupied and tended. They bridge a gap between natural and artificial. They also extend the feeling that the image is alive. A snapshot in time. The space continues to exist, change and evolve when the viewer is no longer present, or perhaps in the mind of the viewer when they leave.” Emily Vanns

More about Emily Vanns

Emily is an artist living and working in East London. She has a studio with Bow Arts at Essex House in Stratford. She graduated from Kingston University with a BA in Fine Art in 2014 and has been developing her practice ever since. Emily also runs lino printing workshops for businesses, organisations and events.

Instagram: @emilyvanns

Email: vannsemily@gmail.com

Nunnery Café exhibitions

This is the eighth exhibition in our series of shows in the Nunnery Café, which showcase affordable works of art from Bow Arts artists. All works are for sale and those priced between £100 – £2500 are available to purchase using Own Art. This is a national scheme that allows buyers to spread the cost of purchasing an artwork over 10 monthly instalments, with the benefit of an interest-free loan.