"Emily Kraus" by Camille Moreno

American-born, London-based artist Emily Kraus creates works that can be read as abstract digital scriptures. Her work triggers questions about the vanishing division between the digital and real worlds, rewriting the definition of what it means to be connected and the ensuing implications on identity politics, faith, and the restrictions inherent to reformation. 

Portraying a complex socio-technological landscape of metallic glitches and malfunctions, the edges of Kraus’ canvases are softened by rich pastels that push the envelope of the aesthetic of oil painting. Her wide, patterned canvases resemble devices, switched on and bugged out. Though static, the works convey a sense of noise and movement, like a shuttering screen on the fritz. This is partly due to her process, which entails dancing around a squared-off shelter she builds from scaffolding and canvas. She creates a painting from inside itself, working squarely in sections that she manually shifts as she goes along. The finished piece is not revealed, even to her, until the shelter is dismantled, unwound, and stretched. Her playful rewriting of the traditional canvas to stretcher process allows her to work the canvas in its most vulnerable, supple state. Meanwhile, the process treads on the territory of isolation felt the world over, not just from being alone but from utter absorption into digital space. 

Read full article at madeinbed.co.uk