Emma Stibbon

Painter and printmaker Emma Stibbon was born in 1962 in Münster, Germany. She studied at Portsmouth College of Art, then at Goldsmiths College in London, and ultimately earned her master’s degree at the University of the West of England in 2005. Internationally recognized for her award-winning work, she has traveled extensively: her practice explores the impact of natural and human-induced change on some of the world’s most remote regions. Working from sketches and photographic records, Emma’s work is romantic in nature: her large monochrome prints engage with the relationship between art and the environment. Driven by a desire to bear witness to these varied and rapidly changing places, Emma often brings art and science together: she ensures the accuracy of her work through close collaboration with geologists and scientists, and through field research. The duality of Emma’s work—capturing the beauty of nature while emphasizing the urgency of the current environmental situation—was recognized in 2013 when she was elected a Royal Academician (member of the Royal Academy of Arts). Emma built her reputation through a series of residencies, including: a Derek Hill Scholarship at the British School at Rome (2010), a stay in Antarctica with the Friends of Scott Polar Research Institute (2013) as well as an Arctic expedition (2013), a residency at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (2016), at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation in Connecticut (2016), with Project Pressure in the Annapurna range in Nepal (2017), and a residency at the North Rim of the National Parks in the Grand Canyon (2017). More recently, Emma was invited by York Art Gallery and Lakeland Arts to travel to Chamonix in the French Alps for Storm Cloud, a project in which she photographed and painted the glaciers around Mont Blanc (2019). Over the years, Emma has also received numerous awards for her work: the Lark Trust Prize, RWA Open Triennial (2000); the Dupree Prize for Woman Artist; a nomination for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award by the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition (2001); the Research Fine Art Award; support from the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation; the St Cuthberts Mill Paper Prize; the Talboys Bequest Purchase Prize (2002); the T N Lawrence Prize, RWA Open Print Exhibition (2004); the Artist Award from Arts Council England, South West (2005); the Printmaking Today Prize: Originals, Mall Galleries (2006); the Faculty Research Award from the University of Brighton School of Arts, Design and Media; another Artist Award from Arts Council England, South West (2007); the Newcastle upon Tyne Artist Award from the same council (2009); the Friends of the Laing Purchase Prize (2010); The Arctic Circle / Svalbard Expedition Grants for the Arts Award (2013); an honorary doctorate (Honorary Doctor of Letters) from the University of Bristol (2018); and the Queen Sonja Print Award, Arctica, Svalbard (2019). Since 2008, Emma has taught at the University of Brighton. She is now a Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Printmaking and works from her studio at Spike Island and the Spike Print Studio in Bristol. She was selected to take part in a second expedition to Svalbard in October 2021, organized by The Arctic Circle. During this residency, Emma planned to draw melting glaciers and ice caps as part of her ongoing interest in documenting threatened and changing landscapes. She also serves on the Selection and Hanging Committee for the 2021 edition of the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition in London, where she is responsible for curating the print galleries. Stibbon’s works are held in numerous collections, including: Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery; Dorset County Hospital; the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; the Jonathan Meese Collection, Cologne; Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Potsdam Museum, Berlin; the New Art Gallery, Walsall; the New Hall Art Collection, Cambridge (at Murray Edwards College); Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth; Scott Polar Research Institute (University of Cambridge); Stadtmuseum, Berlin; the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; and Arctica, Svalbard.