Emma Stibbon

Emma Stibbon was born in 1962 in Münster, Germany. She studied for her Fine Art BA at Goldsmiths, University of London; and an MA in Research Fine Art the University of the West of England, Bristol.

Stibbon’s work is provoked by the wonder and drama of nature but underpinned by contemporary anxieties about our precarious future. Often working on location in some of the world’s most isolated regions, she draws environments that are undergoing dynamic change. Working from sketches and photographic records made on location, Stibbon’s studio-based works are a direct expression of her experiences in the field. The physical materials of site such as chalk, carbon, volcanic ash and sea water, are often brought into her drawings or used as her drawing media, evoking the elusiveness of the subject in the material fabric of her work.

Stibbon’s research has led her to undertake residencies including Artist Placement in Antarctica, organised by the Scott Polar Research Institute; the Arctic Circle.org expedition to Svalbard in the High Arctic; Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut; Artist in Residence at Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park; Artist in Residence at Death Valley National Park and to document receding glaciers in Ecuador with Project Pressure. She was elected Royal Academician in 2013 and in 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of Bristol. In 2019 she was awarded the Queen Sonja of Norway Print Award, Svalbard, High Arctic.

Stibbon’s first large-scale show at a major UK institution opened at Towner, Eastbourne (2024). Her work is exhibited internationally with recent solo and group exhibitions at New York Public Library, New York; Wells & Mendip Museum, Somerset (2024); University of San Diego, California; Safnahús Vestmannaeyja, Iceland (2023); Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol (2022); York Art Gallery, York and Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal (2019); Cristea Roberts Gallery, London (2019, 2017); Verey Gallery, Eton College, Berkshire (2017) touring to Rochester Art Gallery; Galerie Bastian, Berlin (2017, 2015); and Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge (2015).

Her work is held in numerous private and public collections including the Stadtmuseum, Berlin; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon-Tyne; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; New Art Gallery, Walsall; New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, Cambridge; Royal Academy or Arts, London; and Potsdam Museum.

Emma Stibbon lives and works in Bristol, England.