Emily Elisa Halpern was raised in Canada and studied Criminology and was a professional athlete in Europe and Australia before changing courses and studying art. She received a BFA at New York’s Pratt Institute and an MFA at San Diego State University. Her work has won her several scholarships and awards.
Halpern’s paintings operate between symbol and metaphor. They map an inner world and a complex emotional landscape. Her work is a diary of fragments from dreams, incidents from daily life, and internal monologues that ground the work in a personal mythology. Strong emotional undercurrents combine with murky narratives of danger, loss and destruction, reflecting a sense of unease in an unpredictable world. She draws from her life experiences, relationships, current events and the processes inspired by Jung and the Surrealists that seek to unlock the door of the unconscious. She aspires to create work that deepens our understanding of the ways in which certain personal meanings reflect the complex matrix of universally shared emotions.
