Emily Gillbanks: Temporary Sitters

JD Malat Gallery is pleased to present Temporary Sitters, a debut solo exhibition by a 24-year-old British artist Emily Gillbanks. On view from 16 March 2023 until 8 April 2023, the show features a series of paintings that perpetuate the momentary snapshots of people travelling throughout the London Underground. Fascinated by the complex underground network, Gillbanks creates an installation that invites viewers to immerse themselves in the dynamic world of the tube and encounter fellow passengers, pondering each of the strangers' stories.

 

Recently graduated from Royal College of Art, Gillbanks hijacks the space with her rich representations of everyday life, putting the spotlight on the stories of people she comes across in her daily routine. In this particular show, Gillbanks aims to push the genre of new figurative painting further by playing with different levels of representation and exploring the concepts of alienation, anonymity and modern-day voyeurism in her practice. The diversity of passengers she encounters inspires her to re-imagine the tube settings into a unique public space that is in a constant state of transition, where each person riding the underground has no choice but to become a temporary sitter.