Emmette Lewis — Contemporary Portrait Painter

Artist Statement

Primarily, Emmette's creative focus regards subjects that obscure reality and question representation by composing diverse visual narratives. Through oils, textiles and mixed media, she creates abstract reflections that seek to deconstruct societal norms and archetypes, offering a deeper exploration of how our environments, histories, and collective experiences influence identity. Her work exhibits this through distorted portraiture and anomalous figures with an ambiguous lens of stylized and structural beauty. Within the juxtaposing form of imagery, the subject of her work asks the audience to question the relationship between the apparent and the hidden; to consider what exists beyond what is seen. Emmette’s paintings are reflective of personal intimacies, relationships, and diasporic identity.