Emma Coulter

Artist Profile

Biography

Working in the expanded field of painting, Emma Coulter, works with colour in a serial way. Through a refined colour palette, Coulter has created her own bold, idiosyncratic, spectrum, which she applies seamlessly across painting, sculpture, site-specific installation and public art, through a reductive, chromo-spatial approach. Founded in the roots of modernist abstraction, minimalism and conceptual art, her works are an investigation into the semantics of colour and form, and the creation of meaning and language through spatial arrangement, colour relationships and context. Coulter’s work navigates cultural structures that consider art’s place in society.

Through Coulter’s series of site-specific works, which the artist names ‘spatial deconstructions’, she astutely extends her painting practice, reinventing architecture to render it a painting and a support structure all at once. Embedded within these works is also the social context of their location, extending the work beyond formal concerns and offering subtle messages to the community. These are conveyed through the perceptual optics of colour sequences.

Following her undergraduate studies in visual art and the built environment at Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 2000, Coulter completed a Master of Contemporary Art at the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, in painting, sculpture and spatial practice in 2015. Subsequently, Coulter has been awarded numerous grants, prizes, major public art projects, and museum installations, gaining increasing recognition.

Her most recent and notable accolades include the 2021 commission of her most important work to date: a 130-metre-long spatial deconstruction commission in central Melbourne, occupying an entire city block at Melbourne’s most prominent intersection. In the same year she was also the recipient of the biannual Footscray Art Prize (mural category), for her spatial deconstruction work on the Footscray Community Arts Centre facade. 2021 also saw the artists selection as QUT’s fourth Alumni Triennial at QUT Art Museum, with a presentation of sculptures, paintings, process work and a new site-specific intervention – this in acknowledgement of her significant achievements as an artist and alumnis. Coulter was the recipient of the Linden New Art Prize in 2016 and in 2018, following a Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant, was invited to create a new, site-specific work for NewWoman, an exhibition celebrating the work of ground-breaking female artists held at the Museum of Brisbane

2023 will see Coulter achieve significant public artworks in Victoria and NSW as well as present a major solo exhibition ‘infinite systems’, in Melbourne at James Makin Gallery.

Coulter’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, at numerous institutional, commercial and artist-run spaces, as well as in situ in the public domain.

BIOGRAPHY

2023 will see Coulter achieve significant public artworks in Victoria and NSW as well as present a major solo exhibition ‘infinite systems’, in Melbourne at James Makin Gallery.

Coulter’s works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, at numerous institutional, commercial and artist-run spaces, as well as in situ in the public domain.

Exhibitions

PUBLIC ART + MUSEUM COMMISSIONS
2023 spatial deconstruction #28 (the grid), The Eighth, Domain Precinct, Melbourne (under fabrication)
2023 let them feel the light, Yarilla Place, Coffs Harbour Cultural Centre, Coffs Harbour NSW (under fabrication)
2022 Gallery in the Sky, spatial deconstruction #28 (the grid), The Eighth, CREMA constructions, South Melbourne
2022 spatial deconstruction #27 (cutout), Burt Healy Pavilion, Malvern East, Melbourne
2021 spatial deconstruction #26 (window intervention), QUT ART MUSEUM, Brisbane
2021 spatial deconstruction #25 (perceptual vortex), Footscray Community Arts Centre, Footscray, Melbourne
2021 spatial deconstruction #23 (resilience), City Square, Melbourne for the Metro Tunnel creative program
2020 spatial deconstruction #24 (wrapper), Richmond Town Hall, Melbourne
2020 spatial deconstruction #22 (rainbow shelter), Burnett Lane, Brisbane
2020 William Jolly Bridge projection, multichromatic synaesthesia, Brisbane
2019 spatial deconstruction #21 (portals), Dome Gallery, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane
2018 spatial deconstruction #19 (inversion), Latrobe Art Institute, Bendigo
2016 spatial deconstruction #15 (gemstone with fireplace), LINDEN New Art, Melbourne

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS + INSTALLATIONS
2022 folding forms, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne (forthcoming)
2019-20 portals, Dome Gallery, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane
2019 composites, THIS IS NO FANTASY + dianne tanzer gallery, Melbourne
2018 doppel symmetrie, ADHOC, Bochum, Germany
2017 trace patterns, PALMER Projects, Sydney
2015 chrominance, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2015 chromo-spatial, CHASM, Brooklyn, New York
2014 threshold, five walls projects, Footscray, Melbourne
2013 transposition, pieces of eight, Melbourne
2012 shedding skin, Frankston Arts Centre, Mornington Peninsula
2011 viscerality, Kunstraum Tapir, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany
2011 shedding skin, forty five downstairs, Melbourne, Victoria
2009 memory space, Jacob Hoerner Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2007 twofold, Jacob Hoerner Gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2006 Emma Coulter works, Clayton Utz, Riparian Plaza, Brisbane, Queensland
2005 unseen, Fox Galleries, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, Queensland

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 The art of the metrotunnel, Domain House, Melbourne, (forthcoming)
2022 Women in Abstraction, ANZ gallery, Melbourne, Victoria
2021 Thinking into being, Alumni Triennial, QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, Qld
2021 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Gallery, Sydney
2021 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery, Sunshine Coast, Qld
2021 Footscray Art Prize, Footscray Community Arts Centre
2021 Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize, Bayside Gallery, Brighton, Melbourne
2020 Sunshine Coast Art Prize, Caloundra Regional Gallery, Sunshine Coast, Qld
2020 FIVE TEN TWENTY TWENTY, five walls, Footscray
2019 NEW WOMAN, Centenary Exhibition, Museum of Brisbane, Brisbane
2019 Nillumbik Contemporary Art Prize, Montsalvat, Melbourne
2018 support structure, Latrobe Art Institute, Bendigo
2018 Deakin Contemporary Small Sculpture Award, Deakin University Art Gallery, Burwood
2018 WAVE, BSA project space, Byron School of Art, Mullumbimby
2017 9X5NOW, ART150 Historical Exhibition, Margaret Lawrence Gallery, VCA, Melbourne
2017 Mixed tape, PALMER projects, Sydney
2016 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, Woollahra Council Chambers, Sydney
2016 Linden Art Prize, Linden New Art, St Kilda, Melbourne
2015 VCA masters exhibition, Victorian College of the Arts, St Kilda Rd
2015 faux fair, c3 artspace, The Abbotsford Convent, Abbotsford
2015 colour imperative, Rubicon ARI, North Melbourne, Victoria
2014 marvel, the windsor prize, Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
2014 no werk, trocadero artspace, Footscray, Melbourne
2014 parking lot, VCA gallery, Southbank, Melbourne, Victoria
2013 the hills are alive, Paradise Hills Gallery, Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria
2013 artmonth emerging artists finalists exhibition, Depot two, Sydney, New South Wales
2012 from paradise, James Makin Gallery, Collingwood, Melbourne, Victoria
2012 studio artists, Paradise Hills Gallery, Richmond, Melbourne, Victoria
2011 the space between, Neukölln, Berlin, Germany

OTHER SITE SPECIFIC INSTALLATIONS
2019 spatial deconstruction #20 (barn intervention), Montsalvat, Melbourne
2018 insitu painting #01, (composites), THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne
2018 spatial deconstruction #18, (doppel symmetrie), adhocraum, Bochum, Germany
2018 spatial deconstruction #17, (wave), BSA project space, Byron Bay
2017 spatial deconstruction #16, (truncated geometry), PALMER, Sydney
2015 spatial deconstruction #13 and #14, (hood and spectrum), ‘beyond painting’, VCA
2015 spatial deconstruction #12, (warped apex), Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne
2015 spatial deconstruction #11, (prismatic), CHASM, Brooklyn, New York
2014 spatial deconstruction #10, (collision), Five Walls Projects, Footscray, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #09, (marvel intervention), Hotel Windsor, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #08, (the alter), 17 Wills st,, Art Deco Building, Melbourne CBD
2014 spatial deconstruction #07, (rainbow), VCA open day, VCA, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #06 (equilateral), VCA Gallery, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #05, (cube), Black Hole, VCA, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #04, (vortex), VCA project space, VCA, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #03, (window), VCA studio, VCA, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #02, (pendant), Bracks corridor, VCA, Melbourne
2014 spatial deconstruction #01, (prism), the Cage, VCA, Melbourne
2014 private painting commission, Artesian Investments
2013 installation, pieces of eight facade, Russell Place, Melbourne
2013 private painting commission, domestic space
2012 private painting commission, domestic space

Awards

AWARDS/ PRIZES/ RESIDENCIES
2022 recipient, Creative Victoria, sustaining creative workers grant
2021 winner, Footscray Art Prize (mural category)
2021 finalist, Sunshine Coast Art prize
2021 finalist, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize
2021 finalist, Bayside Acquisitive Award
2020 finalist, Sunshine Coast Art prize
2019 finalist, Nillumbik Contemporary Art Prize
2018 recipient, Ian Potter Cultural Trust Grant
2018 finalist, Deakin Contemporary Small Sculpture Award
2016 winner, Linden Art Prize, Linden New Art
2016 winner, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize Viewer’s Choice Award
2015 recipient, Fiona Myer Award for excellence, VCA, University of Melbourne
2015 recipient, NAVA Australian Artists Grant
2014 recipient, Jim Marks Postgraduate Scholarship, VCA, University of Melbourne
2014 recipient, faculty grant, VCA, University of Melbourne
2014 finalist, the Windsor Prize, VCA, Hotel Windsor
2013 finalist, NAB artist award (artmonth Sydney)
2011 takt kunstprojektstraum residency, Friedrichshain, Berlin, Germany
2000 Deans Award for Excellence – Faculty of Built Environment + Engineering
2000 QUT Head of School Award (School of Architecture)
1999 QUT Head of School Award (School of Architecture)

ARTWORKS

Emma Coulter shape shift cutout 2024 synthetic polymer paint on linen 152 x 152 cm $9,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter expand and collapse 2024 synthetic polymer paint on linen 152 x 152 cm $9,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter hybrid models for the future 2024 synthetic polymer paint on linen 167 x 167 cm $12,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter double tuck 2023 enamel on steel 40 x 50 x 35 cm $5,000.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter perfect paradox 2023 synthetic polymer paint on linen 102 x 102 cm $5,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter spatial deconstruction #29 2023 synthetic polymer paint on architecture 300 x 285 x 350 cm $0.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter warped sequence 2023 enamel paint on steel 50 x 50 x 50 cm $6,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter concentric slip 2023 enamel paint on steel 50 x 58 x 75 cm $6,500.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter line drawing for sculpture 2023 synthetic polymer paint on linen 81.5 x 81.5 cm $4,400.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter balancing act 2023 synthetic polymer paint on linen 81.5 x 81.5 cm $4,400.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter parallax 2023 synthetic polymer paint on linen 81.5 x 81.5 cm $4,400.00 ENQUIRE →
Emma Coulter rebellious forms 2023 synthetic polymer paint on linen 102 x 102 cm $5,500.00 ENQUIRE →