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Surrounded by buckets of PVA glue and stacks of newspapers, Emmely Elgersma uses her studio like a surreal kitchen, concocting wonky sculptures and wobbly objects that look good enough to eat (but probably don’t taste very good). Creating clay from kitchen products and papier-mâché out of household chemicals, Elgersma’s work is rooted in her formal training as a ceramicist, just with a couple of jokes thrown in. The result is an exploration of what objects mean to us as human beings, whether it’s turning an old tennis ball tube into a luxury functioning lamp or transforming piles of disused packaging into a 14-foot shark for a brewery in Scotland.​ Emmely was previously an artist-in-residence at the Sarabande Foundation, established by Lee Alexander McQueen, where she was awarded a studio connected to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. She has been invited to South Korea in the spring of 2025 to take part in an artist residency in connection with Korea’s International Craft Festival.

Sourcing her art materials from the recycling bin, Facebook Marketplace, or the streets of Stamford Hill, she has collaborated with IKEA, TikTok, Selfridges, End of the Road Festival, Paynter Jacket, and Sandqvist. Currently, she’s waiting to see if she has made it into the Guinness World Records for creating the biggest ever papier-mâché sculpture. It was very, very big. Too big, if anything.​ She received her FA Level 1 coaching qualification in 2020, which led to her working as a coach for Spurs and Juventus and managing The Tate Workers football team, so she’ll happily tell you why 4-4-2 is more effective with a diamond and inverted wingers. The result is a joyous collision of colour, interiors, sport, and sculpture.

SCULPTOR, CERAMICIST AND FOOTBALL COACH LIVING IN LONDON, ENGLAND.

EDUCATION

MFA Fine Art, Chelsea College of Arts

BA (Hons) Textile Design, Central Saint Martins

BTEC Art Foundation, West Notts College

GROUP SHOWS

2024 - 'The Walls Between Us' Saatchi Gallery

2024 - 'Take A Seat' Bow Arts, Shaftesbury Avenue

2024 - 'A Place' Sarabande Foundation, Haggerston

2024 - 'Shut Up and Stick to Football' Bomb Factory, Covent Garden

2024 - Soho House Pop-Up, House of Bandits, White City House

2023 - Natasha Arselan Presents 'Land of Internal Wonders' 

2023 - Bad Art Presents, Brushes with Greatness 'LTEF'

2023 - Saatchi Gallery: 10th Annual StART Fair

2023 - SOTA: Lab20 

2023 - Christies, Picasso : A 50 Year Legacy 

2023 - Thorpstavri X Haze Projects '2 FOR 1'

2023 - The Auction Collective, Ceramics & Craft Studio Sale

2023 - OOF Gallery 'The World of Gazza'

2022 - Trobat: Juxtaposition, Mallorca

2022 - Collection01, Atelier 100

2022 - London Design Festival: Unfamiliar Forms, SET

2022 - Splash: Ode to Hockney, Art Untamed

2022 - Bad Art Presents: Let Them Eat Fake, Bomb Factory

2022 - Felt Collection 02, Peckham Safe House

2022 - My Pink Moisturising Dream, Crate Space, Margate

2022 - The Football Art Prize, Touchstones Rochdale

2022 - WOP4 - Blue Shop Cottage

2022 - The Function Suite, Hackney Den

 

2021 - Delphian Gallery + Thorp Stavri, The Factory Project

2021 - Patterns of Play: Football Crazy, Football Mad, Hoxton

2021 - Dreamland: w/ Lisette Van Hoogenhuyze, 213 Kupfer

2021 - Office: w/ Jo Kitchen, Landsdowne House, Mayfair

2020 - Private Lounge 116, The Columbia Hotel, Kensington

2020 - Mettle, The Function Suite, Stratford 

2019 - Ultra: Art for the Women’s World Cup, J Hammond

2019 - BIRD IN A BIRD IN A BIRD: w/ Winnie Hall, Art Lacuna

2019 - ArtWorks Open, Barbican Arts Group Trust

2019 - Welcome Home, Healing day, Elephant West

2019 - PUB duo show w/ Jo Kitchen, Function Room

 

2018 - Royal Academy 250th Summer Show

2018 - Art Car Boot Fair - Granary Square Kings Cross

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024 - Rock, Paper, Kiln - Sarabande Foundation

2023 - Sanqvist Repurposed, Berwick St

2022 - 28 Lamps, Changing Room Gallery, Soho

2019 - The Biggest, Limbo Gallery, Peckham

 

RESIDENCIES

2023/24 - Sarabande Foundation

2022 - Anderson Contemporary, Hackney Wick

2021 - PADA, Portugal

2021 - Blue Shop Cottage X Amassa

2021 - RES004, Changing Room Gallery

2019 - Elephant Lab, Elephant Magazine

COLLABORATIONS & ART DIRECTION

Sandqvist Repurposed

Shaping Tomorrow Podcast

Sportopia - Selfridges London

Piano Stage - End of The Road Festival

The Drop - Johnnie Walker

Bugeye - Dancing in the Dark

Warren Schoenbright - Christquake

Cosentino, Clerkenwell Design Festival

Trobar, Mallorca

14ft Shark - Brewdog

TikTok x UEFA - Seen Displays

PRESS

New York Times

Financial Times

MILK X

ICON

WWD

Design Week

Glorious Sport

Riposte Magazine

Its Nice That

Evening Standard

Courier Magazine

Fad Magazine

Hackney Gazette

Oliver Holms

Time Out

Elephant Magazine 

UAL In the Studio

Contributor Magazine

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