Emma Prempeh

Abstract Born in England in 1996 of a Vincentian mother and Ghanaian father, Emma Prempeh's emerging practice as a painter is at once breathtaking, refreshing, and brimming with captivating confidence. Committed as she may be to the Black figure and to the compelling lives, stories, and memories it signifies and illustrates, what sets Prempeh apart is the idiosyncratic rigor of her pictorial tactics. Mostly given to a low-key, earthy, and dark viridian palette, her figures are often set in dim interiors, sometimes with a window or door opening to the outdoors. When she takes on the verdant scenery of the island of St. Vincent, a pall of twilight dusk washes over lovingly detailed, familiar island scenes ruptured unexpectedly by high-key patches of yellow. A characteristic feature in her work is her use of Schlag metal, a brass alloy similar to gold leaf, as a painting surface, creating randomly placed shafts of light slicing through dark interiors, sunlight rupturing rain-heavy clouds, bright gleams on dark and brown skin, or floating, formless decorative motifs within otherwise naturalistic compositions. Through her exploration of the physiochemical characteristics and affective qualities of specific material substance, Prempeh has found new means of extending painting beyond pigment with intriguing results.