My life in a tropical garden

Celebrating Singapore’s identity and lush scenery

Emi Avora is a Singapore based artist. She was born in Athens, Greece, grew up on the island of Corfu and studied in the UK. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Art from the Ruskin School of Arts, Oxford University, UK and a Masters in Fine Art from the Royal Academy Schools, London, UK. She participated in numerous solo and group shows in the UK, Greece, Germany and in the USA. She moved to Singapore two years ago.

Elements from her upbringing in Corfu, a UNESCO heritage town site, inform her work: the memory of that strong Mediterranean light that brings clarity and strength to colour as well as the place’s unique history and the remains of its colonial past. In her paintings, she playfully mixes references to her Greek heritage and to Singapore’s identity such as Peranakan elements as well as local food, flora and fauna.

Colour has become increasingly important in Emi Avora’s work since she moved to Singapore and as a solace during the COVID 19 pandemic. As a response to the exuberance of the tropical nature the artist extended her colour palette. This allowed her to create a dream space, a parallel universe that is accessible through the formal elements of the images and colour in particular. Moreover, the everyday observation of a new and unfamiliar cultural environment became her main source of inspiration.

A few chairs and a table with the relief of a meal in a lush tropical garden but no human beings has become one of the artists’ favourite subject matters since she moved to Singapore two years ago. She rejuvenates the still life genre by a choice of vivid colours and a composition mingling inanimate objects with tropical plants which seem to grow organically among bottles, bowls, cups and glasses. The artist plays with the colours and the shapes as well as with warped perspectives to transform everyday lunches or tea time into lavish and even baroque scenes.  She creates dream places inspired by the exuberant tropical nature, the continuous dense green that never fades, the palm trees and plants. Empty chairs and tables are an invitation for the viewer to enter as a protagonist and dream in. Her maximalist paintings play with exaggerated colours, twisted perspective and changes in scale to create a sense of wonder. However, Emi Avora always strives for an overall balance which offers a sense of tranquility to the viewer.

My Life In a Tropical Garden, joyfully celebrates  Singapore’ s identity and lush scenery. Like the Singapore modern painters of the Nanyang School, who created a unique style by depicting an idealized tropical environment, Emi Avora has significantly changed her visual language in response to her impressions of Singapore.

You can view and buy all the artworks on line through Intersections e-store