biography

Based in Belfast, Emma completed her Masters in Fine Art - Painting in 2006 with Ulster University. Since then she has been immersed in the arts sector in

Northern Ireland working as a practicing artist, creative consultant, evaluator, and educator. Berkery is the recipient of several Arts Council of Northern

Ireland funding awards in addition to many other artist grant awards and residencies. She is a regular guest speaker on the MA in Arts Management

course at Queens University and currently holds a long-term associate artist residency with Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, an arts centre in Belfast. Emma

exhibits regularly throughout Ireland with recent solo exhibitions It Might Be Hope, Who Can Tell? (2024) in So Fine Art Gallery, Dublin, Making Space to

Soar(2022) in The Nicholas Gallery, Belfast and Submerged in Echoes (2021) in Cultúrlann Mc Adam Ó Fiaich, Belfast.

Artist STATEMENT

Through an abstract painting practice, I explore the convergence and dissolution of boundaries between self and place, identity and space.

My painting practice is process led, with a reflective, intuitive methodology, drawing parallels with acts of the body, dripping, soaking, pouring, bleeding,

spilling and therefore takes painting itself as body, as its beginning. The essence of my process is a continuous balancing of intuition and chance, power and

control.

I am concerned with personal interpretations of experience and their connections to place in solitary and collective spaces. My processing of internalised

imagery through conscious and subconscious structure and gesture, leads to the creation of imagined and fictitious landscapes. I explore movement, colour

and spatial relationships within the painting plain as a space for questioning identity. Multiple layers of paint speak to the complex layers of our identities with

the works developing and evolving over significant periods of time.

This slowness of creation and process is at odds with our fast-paced digital world and can be interpreted as a repulsion of this growing status quo. To be seen,

my works invite us to decelerate and invest time – a moment of activism that fosters connection, emotional response, and a deeper exploration of self.

Typically, each painting exists within a specific body of work and while underlying themes and concepts are there, ambiguity creates space for individual

interpretation. The work is never confined to a singular narrative but aims to elicit emotional responses, to provoke ephemeral forces within, enabling

individual engagement at a subconscious level where it feels vibrant, dynamic, and abundant.

Abstract artists such Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly inspire my working practice.