“Passing through a humming neon portal in one painting, we exit into the fugitive space of another, where even ‘stranger things’ might occur, such as a chance encounter with a ‘visitor’ -
a luminous god like rock.”
Emily Jane Campbell’s work uses childhood memory and personal mythology to inhabit the spirit of place. Often inspired by her father's gardens, she re-authors her own history and memorialises that which has been lost, through natural forms such as rocks and trees that hold vigil. Often appearing in arrangements that resemble henges or cairns, these memorial constructions provide a gateway to an inaccessible past, to a place in the human story where layers of history contain the trace elements of a person, place or happening locked away in memory. Passing through a humming neon portal in one painting, we exit into the fugitive space of another, where even ‘stranger things’ might occur, such as a chance encounter with a ‘visitor’ - a luminous god like rock. Our destination remains elusive and dreamlike, conjuring the power of childhood imagination and an enduring connection with the natural world.
- Text by Justin Hibbs, Artist and Curator written for AUTUMN Exhibition for Daisy Green Collection at Holland Park Cafe, London 2025
Artist Statement
Emily Jane Campbell is an artist whose fundamental concerns are the concepts of personal mythology, “genius loci”, loss and alternate realities. She investigates both the deeply personal experiences of remembrance and storytelling, and the underlying structure of the physical world. This exploration is consolidated through immaculately rendered stones, obscuration of the painted surface, a deep understanding of light and colour and the playful application of fittings and hardware. The borrowed imagery and ceremony of henges, cairns and totemic memorial constructions provide the context for fantastical landscapes populated with portals and humming neon gateways to one's own inaccessible past.
Campbell predominantly works in oil paint and mixed media. Her fantastical landscapes are an amalgamation of photographs, childhood memories and imagination. Locations of her past are reimagined, allowing her to re-author and mythologise her history and memorialise that which has been lost.
These idealised locations are treasured but inaccessible spaces. Fluorescent portals and hovering dark holes lead curiously in and out of the landscape, but their destinations remain elusive. Natural forms hold vigil. Trees are reassuring in their solidity and solidarity. The presence of stones signifies loss, as they become the cairns and totems of memorial. They reference an awareness of our place in the human story & the layers of history held in their geological strata, reminders that nothing lasts forever. Just as remnants of the past are concealed in rocks, trace elements of a person, place or happening are locked in our memory.
Artist Biography
Emily Jane Campbell (b.1986) lives and works in St Albans and London. She is an alumna of University College London (BA Hons History of Art) and Goldsmiths UoL (PGCE Art and Design). Her work explores remembrance, personal mythologies and the “genius loci” or (spirit of place) through reimagined landscapes and natural forms. In 2023 Campbell won the Chapel Arts Studios CAS OPEN OPEN Solo Award and she delivered her second solo exhibition “Stubbornly Persistent Illusion” in February 2024. “Fatherland”, Campbell’s first solo exhibition, was held at Geddes Gallery in Kings Cross in 2016. She was awarded the Cass Art Bursary Prize in 2015.
Selected exhibitions include: “AUTUMN” at Daisy Green Collection, Holland Park Cafe, London with Jane Ward, curated by Justin Hibbs (2025), “CAS OPEN OPEN” Chapel Arts Studios, Andover (2023); “The Immaculate Dream” Collyer Bristow Gallery, London curated by Rosalind Davis (2019); “And Don’t The Kids Just Love It…” Goldsmiths UoL, London (2017); “The Thames: The ARTery of London” (with Plastic Propaganda) St Katharine Docks, London (2016), “Cyprus Open Studios Annual Exhibition” Technopolis 20 Cultural Centre, Paphos, Cyprus (2016); “Both Ends of Madness” (with Plastic Propaganda) Folkestone Library, Kent (2016); “Visions” Hoxton Arches, London (2015); “Co,ord.in,ate” Pop-Up Gallery, Kings Cross, London (2013). Campbell’s work is held in private collections in Europe and the US.