ABOUT

Emily Cowan is a multidisciplinary artist based in Vancouver, BC.  A lifelong artist, she has been creating works seriously since 2015 and currently works primarily in acrylic gouache paintings.  Her mediums also include (but are not limited to) acrylic, watercolour, collage, drawing, zine-making and sequential arts.  

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Themes of womanhood, queer identity, internalized misogyny and mental health are explored in her renderings of houses, buildings and interior domestic scenes.  Growing up, Emily always had a fascination with houses.  She suffered from undiagnosed anxiety and crippling shyness, and often felt safest and most herself in her home or the homes of trusted friends.  Yet she also internalized the idea that homes were not an acceptable topic of interest for a smart, modern woman, and continues to struggle with what her interest in homes and domestic spaces means for her as a modern independent feminist.

Houses, buildings and rooms - the spaces and places that contain the heart of our lived experiences, continue to fascinate her as she grapples with the opposing concepts of home-as-safety and home-as-status.  As the housing and rental markets soar, making home a source of stress rather than peace for many, she hopes to create works that explore this dichotomy and bring stillness to the mental storms that pull her in different directions around this topic.

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Emily's paintings feature bold colours, a combination of crisp hard-edge lines and organic forms, and meticulous detail work.  She aims to create an immersive experience for the viewer, inviting them to step into these urban and domestic spaces and consider their own relationships to the spaces and places that shape our lives.

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