In a quiet corner of North Devon pop artist Emma Gibbons is bringing a touch of sparkle to a dull day
Emma Gibbons loves bright colours. In the course of our interview and photo shoot, she switches from a candy pink jacket to a shimmering metallic blue affair – a fabulous garment, made in Cornwall.
Emma is a pop artist, living in a cottage in the small village of Kings Heanton, which lies deep in the North Devon countryside, but not far from Barnstaple.
It is a cold day when we arrive, the landscape still hanging on to winter gloom, but Emma’s outfits, along with her sunny disposition, are enough to brighten the darkest day.
Open the door to her home and a large table in the centre of the room is covered in a rainbow of artworks. There are rows of ‘ice lollies’, in white box frames, all the same size but every one different. They are created from layers of resin and, Emma’s signature element, tiny hand-made pill capsules, each filled with glitter. The lollies take me back to a childhood of 1970s’ Fabs, and I want to reach out and touch them. Children have been known to run up to Emma’s art fair trade stand, thinking they are real ices. It’s happened so often that she now keeps a large jar of sweets (real ones) to offer as compensation for their disappointment.
Emma has been a full-time artist for five years and 2022 was a year of phenomenal success involving two sold-out shows and selling a piece to Australian film actress Margot Robbie, which is currently hanging in the Barbie star’s office in LA.
Emma’s work is attracting the attention of the celebrity circuit, it’s been bought by Dawn French, Zoe Ball, Danny Dyer and on the day of our visit she’s just received a commission from Gordon Ramsay.
Despite her teenage dream of being, of all things, a detective, she found herself studying art in London, and during her MA at Camberwell College of Art, she began obsessively visiting and doing voluntary work at the city’s galleries. She’d never considered doing her own work, the life of ‘a poor struggling artist’, didn’t appeal. Eventually she ended up with a dream job, a paid role at White Cube.
She was there when it opened its Mason’s Yard site, an event that attracted ‘helicopters with paparazzi taking shots from the air’. It was also the venue for the UK unveiling of Damien Hirst’s For the Love of God, a platinum cast of a life-size diamond-encrusted human skull. Emma was involved in its installation.
She has plenty of tales to tell about her early career, where she met the cream of the contemporary art world – and the celebrities who were buying their work. The gallery attracted famous names that would necessitate out of hours private appointments, one time she had a last minute call to work very early one morning – so George Michael could take a private look around.
White Cube was ‘where it all started’ for Emma. ‘For a year I met the most amazing people,’ she reflects. But although she loved London, ‘something changed for me after the bombings, mum was in Devon and I wanted to come back.’
So, she left the city and was managing a gallery in Budleigh Salterton when she heard that Hirst was setting up a gallery in Ilfracombe and hiring. Emma says her employer insisted she went for it, the chance was too good to miss, and she got the job. It suited her perfectly. ‘It was a bit like having a London job set in Devon.’
The move into making her own work started when she was at home following the birth of her child and it focused on found items, often small, but invariably sparkly or jewel-like.
‘I’m not the best drawer or painter in the world, but I’ve always loved making weird things out of strange materials,’ she says.
She remembers being with friends and spotting a jewel set in a wooden table. It fascinated her, made her curious, the thought of discovering jewels hidden in objects.
She adores shiny sparkly things, admitting that, ‘glitter has been with me from the beginning’.
Filling empty pill cases with glitter and crystals, is like creating her own treasure. Her family originally came from St Ives, there’s apparently some Cornish pirates in the mix and it seems appropriate that Emma’s work is about treasures.
There’s a glamorous touch to her work - another of her loves is Chanel. ‘I have an obsession with Chanel – it's such a behemoth and the iconography – it’s been around forever – it’s history and french-ness.’
She’s made Chanel bottle artworks, many of which have been sold to the company’s staff, who are equally caught up in the magic of the iconic brand.
From Chanel to Barbie and it was while at a London art fair, one of Emma’s works, Barbie, was spotted by Margot Robbie’s personal trainer. He texted a photo of the work to the actress, who is staring in the upcoming Barbie film. She loved the work and bought it.
Her knowledge of the London art world and the experience of working with Damien Hirst which developed her business skills, is combined with a determination to succeed. ‘I’m always banging on doors – I’m shameless about approaching people,’ she says. Even so, she says her success was unexpected. ‘I wasn’t planning for this – it just happened, it’s down to the way my work has evolved in the way it did.’
She recognises a lightness, the fun in her work, but at the same time, she is drawing on some deep emotions. With help from her two assistants, she fills thousands of pill cases every week, but using pills is also a kickback to traumatic family events in the past and also a time when she suffered from an alcohol addiction.
‘There is also a darkness to it, from my point of view,’ she says.
Now though, ‘My addiction is now my work,’ she says. ‘But I’d still do this for therapy if it wasn’t my job.
‘Creating this stuff makes me happy and it’s making other people happy. This is an incredible gift and I’ve got to use it wisely.’
