Emily Ebbs

Looking Up From The River, 2024

150.5 × 150.5 cm Acrylic, Eucalyptus dye, Beeswax on Drop Sheet

Not Available

2025 $30,000 NATIONAL ACQUISITIVE PADDINGTON ART PRIZE WINNER

"This artist’s landscape is imbued with feelings of both vastness and interiority. The use of beeswax (and more subtly, the eucalyptus dye) are poetic reminders of the traces and marks — natural and unnatural — that we make in the world. In this way, the subject is as much the landscape as it is the act of looking.
The work embodies an overall coherence, a tacit understanding of material knowledge, process, place, memory, authenticity, nuance, sensitivity and timelessness. Drawn to the stain as a metaphor for psychological and emotional trauma, this work draws on the emotive, the intuitive, to manifest the residues of landscape, of memory and place, into a rendezvous with partnership, healing and transformation.
Created during an artist residency at The Corridor Project on Wiradjuri Country, we are pleased to announce the recipient of the $30,000 National Acquisitive Prize for 2025 is Emily Ebbs." - Joint statement from the Judges.

2025 ART LEVEN GALLERY WINNER (sponsored by Mirri Leven)

"I am delighted to present this award to Emily Ebbs. As a gallery grounded in the representation and celebration of First Nations art and culture, Art Leven is equally committed to fostering dialogue with contemporary artists whose practices engage deeply with Country, memory, and the emotional resonance of place. Emily’s process-based approach to abstraction offers a contemplative and poetic interpretation of landscape, one that moves beyond depiction to reveal the traces and stains of lived experience. Working on Gadigal land, her paintings speak to the lingering presence of time and memory, exploring the marks we carry and the unseen histories embedded within us and our surroundings. Her work embodies a quiet intensity and authenticity that aligns beautifully with our commitment to projects that honour both the seen and the felt dimensions of Country. I look forward to hopefully developing this project-based solo exhibition with her in 2026 and to sharing her evocative vision with our audiences.
Emily Ebbs is a visual artist living and working on Gadigal land (Sydney). Her process-based practice explores the emotional residue of memory through the use of staining in painting. Drawn to the stain as a metaphor for psychological and emotional trauma, her works act as intimate portraits shaped by lived experience and observation. In recent years, Ebbs has begun incorporating the landscape as a quiet collaborator. The landscape is no longer a subject but a partner in healing and transformation. This work was created while on residency at The Corridor Project on Wiradjuri Country" - Mirri Leven (Award Sponsor)