About Emily Jolley
Emily Jolley is an abstract artist based in Cambridgeshire, UK, specializing in elegant and expressive abstract paintings. She is inspired by the natural world and the connections and transience of our daily lives.
My painting style has developed from a desire to express ideas of connectedness and existentialism, a commitment to art for art’s sake, and a fundamental appreciation of form, line, colour and composition. Abstraction allows a focus on these concepts while following and furthering the language of abstract expressionism. Artists I admire include Lee Krasner, Eva Hesse, Helen Frankenthaler, Barbara Hepworth, Tracey Emin, Joan Mitchell and Julie Mehretu.
Every painting is a unique balance between intuitive and considered marks, energy, and calm. The process and composition play with notions of authorship – to what extent is the artist responsible for the final work – embracing the choices made, actions taken, incidental happenings that occur in fleeting moments. While final paintings are fixed they clearly show that while they are what they are, they could have been otherwise.
Experiencing, observing, drawing, experimenting and playfulness are important to my practice and inform my abstract works.
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I work in both large and small formats with a variety of media. As a maker, I am interested in the nature of producing art and of crafting – the drive to do it, authorship, mark making, and working with materials sympathetically. Making work in response to and/or that is intended for a particular space is also very motivating to me. I am interested in how spaces and objects can affect how we feel.
Inspiration comes from all manner of observation, experiences and thought. I aim to create work that is beautiful and invites contemplation.
'You have to know how to use the accident, how to recognise it, how to control it, and ways to eliminate it so that the whole surface looks felt and born all at once.'
Helen Frankenthaler
'Abstract is not a style. I simply want to make a surface work. This is just a use of space and form: it's an ambivalence of forms and space.'
Joan Mitchell
Education
2005 - 2008
BA Fine Art, Bath Spa University (First)
2004 - 2005
BTech Art and Design, Manchester Metropolitan University (Distinction)
Awards
2023
Shortlisted for the Visual Artists Association professional artist of the year award
2004
Howes Smith Memorial Prize for drawing
Residencies
2024
The Retreats, Burwash Manor, Cambridgeshire
The Artists' Marquee, Cambridgeshire, July
Exhibitions
Solo
2024
Momentary Significance: a solo show by Emily Jolley, Art and Soul Gallery, St Neots, May
2024
Emily Jolley: Solo show, Huntingdon Art Gallery, Huntingdon, January
2023
Providence, Cambridgeshire, August - October
2021
Growing Reflections, a solo show by Emily Jolley: Solo show, Art and Soul Gallery, St Neots, November
2016
Emily Jolley: Solo show, Espresso Library, Cambridge, May - July
Group (recent)
2024
Art Fair East, Norwich, 7-10 November
ART-TRAnslations, Cambridge, November
Stapleford Granary, Cambridgeshire, 30 October - 11 December
Bath Contemporary Artists Fair, Bath, 8 September
Creative Reactions, Cambridge, 1 June
Bath Contemporary Artists Fair, Bath, 14 April
ART-TRAnslations, London Design Centre, April
Inside-Outside, Art-at-one, Hemingford Grey, March
Bocabar Art, Bristol, 5 February - 17 March
2023
Art Fair East, Norwich, 1-3 December
The Wrong Biennale, Following A Path Pavillion, online, 1 Nov 2023 - 1 March 2024
Abstract, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, 19 September - 6 October
VAA professional artist award shortlisted artists, online, August
Babylon Open Art Exhibition, Babylon Gallery, Ely, August
Cambridge Open Studios, Cambridgeshire, 22-23 July
Water's Edge, Huntingdon Art Gallery, Huntingdon, 9 June - 20 July
By the riverside, Art and Soul Gallery, St Neots, 6 April - 3 May
Winter Open, Babylon Gallery, 10 - 29 January
2022
Significant Form, Huntingdon Art Gallery, Huntingdon, 23 Dec - 2 Feb 2023
Affordable Art, Art and Soul Gallery, St Neots, 6 December - 15 January 2023
Artists' Marquee winter show, Cambridgeshire 26-27 November
Abstract Expressions, Huntingdon Art Gallery, Huntingdon, 1 October - 10 November
Babylon Open Art Exhibition, Babylon Gallery, Ely, August
Cambridge Open Studios, Cambridgeshire, July
COS showcase, Muchaelhouse Gallery, Cambridge, June
Flora Flora, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, April
Awash, Society of East Anglian Watercolourists, Handa Gallery, Norfolk, February
2021
Work Made In Lockdown, Fronteer Gallery, Sheffield, July
Arts management / curation
2024
Appointed CEO of Cambridge Community Arts
Appointed Cambridge Creative Network co-director
Huntingdon Art Gallery monthly exhibitions and events
Artists' Marquee resident artists programme
Creative Reactions
2023
Mill Road Winter Fair Art Exhibition
Huntingdon Art Gallery 6-weekly exhibitions and events
COS showcase at Michaelhouse Gallery (90 artists)
2022
Founded Huntingdon Art Gallery (October 2022)
COS showcase at Michaelhouse Gallery (44 artists)
Art education and career
I studied fine art painting at Bath School of Art and Design, Bath Spa University, graduating with a First and showing work at the Holburne Museum, Bath; Old Truman Brewery, London; and Candid Arts, London. Prior to this I achieved Distinction at Manchester Metropolitan University’s Art Foundation year, won the Howes Smith Memorial Prize for drawing, and had work displayed at the Lowry Centre in Salford Quays, Manchester.
After studying fine art I developed a successful career in business development, returning to painting and showing work in 2016. I still work as a business development professional alongside my art practice.
Committed to creating opportunities in and for my community, in October 2022 I founded Huntingdon Art Gallery,. I am currently Co-Director of Cambridge Creative Network (CCN) with founder Karen Jinks.
In 2023 I was shortlisted for the VAA professional artist award
In 2024 I was appointed CEO of Cambridge Community Arts, starting in the role from May of that year.
I am a member of several professional and networking groups for artists including: The Visual Artists Association, Cambridge Arts Network, CCN, the Neotists, Cambridge Open Studios, Indie Cambridge, The Artists’ Marquee and a-n.
I work from studios at Milton Studios (@cambridgestudios) and in Huntingdon.
Photo credit: Emily Jolley in her studio by Julian Eales for Indie Cambrudge, 2023