Emile Wilmar

'Venus of Wellington; 2026, Norfolk pine

Bench seat 2025, pinus radiata, reinforcing steel bars, 660 x 1800 x 400 mm

Artist biography

Emile Wilmar, born in London, raised in Wellington.Emile Wilmar, born in London, raised in Wellington.Emile’s practise is currently based around making works that critically present the reified constellation of normative associations between/around sculpture, ornament & furniture.
All works are made with windfall wood or wood that is sourced through arborist mates from around the Wellington region, with the advantage that the wind gives very tortured textures to the grain. For more organic forms the works will be sculpted with a mixture of chainsaw, dremil, & chisel, for more formal works the wood is worked more conventionally with thicknessers, planes & routers; metals welded etc. Often the material will be burnt & sanded to raise the grain to bring out the only advantage of using timbers from wellington (its windswept character).
Influenced primarily by forms from bygone eras around the world presented against more modern & functionalist works to examine the way ornament, furniture & art retrospectively elude their contemporary reified distinctions.  Other influences include Asger Jorn & COBRA (particularly their sculptural & ceramic work as well as theoretically in Pour la Forme); works of Alain Badiou (particularly on Inaesthetics), Walter Benjamin & the Frankfurt school & Frederic Jameson.

Group Exhibitions

  • with Kerrie Hughes, New Zealand Background 2, 2025
  • Window gallery, 2026