Emily Hana is a Tokyo-born Australian multidisciplinary artist currently based in London, whose distinctive practice explores perception, identity, intimacy and the complex relationship between physical and imagined worlds.

Working across painting and sculpture, Emily creates highly tactile, three-dimensional works from wood and discarded or found materials, transforming objects that might otherwise be overlooked into intricate, sculptural canvases.

Emily moved to London in 2016 and spent several years working as a senior print maker, producing work for leading contemporary artists.

She began developing in her own painting practice during the pandemic and has gone on to exhibit in the United Kingdom. She was also shortlisted for the RBA Rome Scholarship in both 2023 & 2024.

Emily Hana

Current Role: Artist
Current Location: London, United Kingdom

How did you find making connections in the art space, in a new country?

I didn't really know what I was doing for a long time. I think I only really got a handle on it when I started pushing my own work.

No one really gives you a blueprint for how to be an artist, or maybe they do at art school, but what I have heard from other artists, they don't!

I didn't realise how important networking was - going to private views every week, showing up at the same places and allowing yourself to become a familiar face. Since I've been pushing my own work and consistently showing up in those spaced, it has become second nature.

I think it's about having the confidence for it, but also being consistent. People aren't necessarily going to pursue a friendship with you when you show up somewhere once. But when you keep going back, it becomes clear that you have things in common and it gives those relationships a chance to develop naturally. I think having interesting things to say doesn't go astray, either.

What the key themes and ideas that inform your work?

I've recently created two separate bodies of work.

The Hugging Machine explores themes of artificial intimacy and loneliness. It's based on a childhood hugging machine I made for myself out of yellow Marigold dish-washing gloves and pillows. In what I think is ultimately quite a hopeful way, it explores how we comfort ourselves and how we hold ourselves during times of loneliness and discomfort.

As someone who has been single for a decade, that's something I've had to really develop.

My other body of work, Simulacrum, is based on Carl Jung's idea of the shadow self and the multiplicities that we create of ourselves. It poses the question: which is the original, and what are the bastardisations of that? How do we fragment ourselves? How do we mould ourselves to fit into different areas of our lives, and where is the authenticity behind that?

My aim is really to hold a mirror up to the audience and get people to question who they are deep down, and the decisions and experiences that have led them to that place.

At the core of both bodies of work is a yearning for connection, whether that is connection with other people or connection with the self.

You often include discarded objects in your work. What was the inspiration behind this process?

It was really a matter of necessity. I started painting during the pandemic when I was put on furlough for six months. For the first time in my life, it felt like I had actual time to play.

I didn't really have enough money for traditional art materials, so I started pulling random scraps of wood from the street and painting on those. At the beginning, I gravitated towards traditional shapes - squares and rectangles - basically whatever was easiest.

As time went on and I became more confident, I started gravitating towards the weird shapes: the off-cuts, the squiggly bits and the triangles. Eventually I started joining them together and taught myself wood work.

There was a lot of trial and error - and I'm sure there are plenty of things I don't do 'correctly' - but it works and I've found my way with it.

I find wood a really fascinating material because it is so intuitive. Now I build these geometric, sculptural canvases from wood I find, then paint figuratively over the top.

How has your work and approach to medium evolved since you started?

I think I have gotten a lot better at it! As they say, practice makes perfect.

When I first started making these works, I didn't know anything about wood work or oil paint. I was just following my nose. I was much more of a drawer thatn I ever was a painter, and now I've found myself very much the other way around.

Now that I've developed a way of working with paint and wood, it gives me the freedom to be more experimental and to challenge myself by creating increasingly complex canvases.

Last year, for example, I really wanted to go larger. The problem with working with wood - and being one small lady in a studio - is that if the work gets too big, I physically can't lift it. So I created a modular system where my larger pieces can split apart into four or five separate works. They can be shown individually or brought together to form the complete work. It solves several practical problems - these works are easier to transport, I don't need enormous vans to move them, and I can lift and install the individual pieces myself.

It also gives collectors options. Not everyone has a large wall to fill, especially in London. Someone can own a large work and display it as four small pieces, with the possibility of bringing these back together in future with more space.

I really like the idea that the work can grow with you through your life.

Evolution of Practice

Inspiration & Reflection

2025 was a particularly significant year for you, as a finalist in the Dubel Prize and your first solo shows in London. What were the pretexts to the shows and how did your approach differ from being in a group show?

I had two solo shows that year - it was a very intense year.

Over that year period, I created 43 paintings, which was by far the most output I'd ever produced. There where times when I was pushing myself and pushing myself to get there, but as a result, I noticed my skills developing quite rapidly. I think when you spend that much concentrated time focusing on your craft, it's inevitable that you're going to get better at it.

I have mixed feelings about the Dubel Prize. One one hand, it offered me an incredible opportunity to show my work, and it pushed me to create a 20-1 piece body of work for my first represented solo show in London, which was incredible.

On the other hand, the opportunity wasn't ultimately what we had been promised. What was promised to the finalists and winners wasn't delivered, and discovering that after I had spent a year working towards it, threw me into a bit of a professional spiral for a while. There is definitely some hurt around the lack of honesty in that situation.

At the same time, I was really, really proud of myself and the work I created for that show. It also led to so many other opportunities, so I absolutely don't want to suggest that the experience or the work was for nothing.

My second solo show that year was with Cicek Gallery, and that was an incredible experience. Berfin, the curator, gave me so much room to experiment. At the beginning she basically said 'Emily, let's make it weird. I want to give you the freedom to create anything you want'. That was The Hugging Machine series, and as a result, I taught myself how to work with latex and created an inflatable yellow latex hugging machine to centrally within the exhibition.

That freedom was amazing and it led me to start considering how I could expand my practice beyond painting and sculpture and into installation and, I suppose, performance in a small way.

So 2025 was really a year of extreme highs and extreme lows.

What key personal attributes have assisted your career success and fulfillment?

Resilience.

I won't lie - I think being a working class person pursuing a career in art is a very difficult thing to do. It will test you in ways you didn't think were possible, and I've found a strength in myself that I didn't know I had.

There are constant rejections and constant disappointments. But then there are these moments when I feel like I am in exactly the right place, where I feel fulfilled in a way that I only hope everyone gets the opportunity to experience. In those high moments, I suppose it feels little like ecstasy.

I think I have developed an ability to always try to find a way out, or find a solution, and keep going.

What are some ways you seek inspiration?

I am inspired a lot by other artists. I try to go to painting and sculpture exhibitions regularly and constantly keep my finger on the pulse of what people are doing in painting, particularly figurative work, and I suppose where the market is heading.

Outside of that, I've never really had the money to travel extensively, as much as I would love to. But it doesn't really cost anything to go inside yourself.

So a lot of my inspiration comes from psychology, my own childhood memories and experiences, and thinking about how those things have shaped me as an adult.

My work is very much about looking inwards and creating connection - connection with yourself, and then with others, through that exploration.

Building Your Career

What were some key early career experiences before moving to London?

I worked for a few years as an art teacher in Australia, including at St Scholastica's College.

During that time I was trying to pursue art in a smaller way and I had a couple of exhibitions in and around Sydney with drawings I had created. I was much more of a draftsperson at that point, rather than a painter.

They were really rewarding experiences, but I don't think at that point in my life I thought it was possible to be a full time artist or to really make a living from it.

What was your experience like when you first arrived in London?

When I first arrived, I wasn't creative for quite a while. I think I was re-calibrating after my artist residency in Amsterdam, which had been incredible. While I was there, I had the opportunity to create a month long paper and light installation at an incredible club called De School.

When I first moved to London I was completely broke, so I struggled quite a lot. I ended up getting a job at a whisky bar for about nine months before finding a job that i really loved as a print maker, creating traditional prints and editions for other artists, including Anish Kapoor, Damien Hirst and Harland Miller.

I really loved that work and ended up working there for about seven or eight years.

Initially it was very difficult, I think London is a touch city to move to.

What moving into creating your own artwork something that evolved organically?

I think it did.

There was something about teaching that didn't resonate with me as much as I thought it would. I was basically teaching kids about the thing that I really wanted to be doing for myself.

I think I am much better at working with my hands. I don't think I was built for a desk job. Or maybe I was just too young and wasn't ready to teach - that could also be the reason I didn't stick with it.

Moving towards making my own work felt quite organic. Eventually I realised that rather than teaching people about art, I wanted to be the person actually making it.

Origin Story

You were born in Tokyo, before moving to Australia as a child. Have you kept any connection with Japan?

My family were expats in Tokyo. My dad was a stockbroker and my mum had just given birth to my sister when they moving there. Not too long after, she became pregnant with me.

I only lived there for a short time, so unfortunately I don't have any memories of Japan. Although a lot of my childhood toys growing up were Japanese as a result. Instead of Barbies, I had Licca Chan dolls, which I absolutely adored.

In terms of keeping a connection with Japan, I feel like there is this sort of unspoken tether to it that I will explore at some point. I would really love to go and live there for a period of time. I just haven't had the money to do that so far in my life, and I would love to explore it from a more financially stable position.

What was your initial study background and first pathway when you finished school?

I originally studied to be a high school teacher. I think I wanted to become a teacher because I had the most incredible art teacher growing up, Ms Da Silva, at St Scholastica's College. She was phenomenal. Devastatingly, not to long after I graduated, she had a horrible accident that changed her life - but she really instilled a love for art in me. I was always so appreciative of her teaching and the way that she conducted herself.

I think it's an incredible profession if you have the strength for it. I will also say that I think it's one of the hardest professions in the world, which is probably why I didn't stick it out.

Was creativity part of your family dynamic?

My mother was always quite creative. I think she always wanted to be an art teacher herself, but life never took her in that direction, but she has definitely been a big source of creativity for me.

My family, while creative, tend to be creative in a more practical way. I think I'm the first visual artist to come out of my family. My grandfather was a sports journalist and my father was a chef, so I support creativity runs through the family - just not necessarily in the way that I have chosen to pursue it.

A big inspiration for me was the also Richard Goodwin, the incredible Australian artist and architect, who was a close personal friend of my family growing up. I remember being very young probably around five to seven years old, and playing hide and seek with his son Henry in their house. While looking for a hiding spot, I stumbled upon Richard's studio. I was blown away by everything in there, that I completely forgot to hide and lost the game!

I grew up in Sydney. My family are all from Melbourne, but I grew up in Annandale in the Inner West of Sydney.

Where in Australia did you call home?

When did you re-locate to London?

I moved in 2016 when I was 25. I went to Amsterdam, then over to London six months later.

The original drive for moving was twofold; my mother and sister had moved over to London a few years before, so I was really in Sydney by myself. But I suppose the main catalyst was that I was in an abusive relationship and didn't love my job. I was teaching at the time and felt there was more to life. I didn't feel like I was able to access that because of the relationship I was in, and which I felt unable to get out of. So my solution was really to book a one way ticket to Amsterdam, do an artist residency and try being an artist for the first time.

Her Edit

The first art related item you ever purchased?

There is one that stands out. When I was finishing my HSC and found out that I had got into ARTEXPRESS, there was this incredible set of sable-hair paint brushes in an art shop that I had wanted for so long, but they were really expensive. I decided to reward myself by buying them. The funny thing is, that once I had them, they were almost too good to use. I'd put them on this pedestal where I somehow wasn't worthy of using those paintbrushes yet. Now I wish I still had them, because they were beautiful.

What is an aspirational travel destination?

Japan.

There is an artist residency at the Awagami Factory, a paper factory in Japan, that I've always wanted to do. They have a print studio and teach you how to make Japanese paper. I would love to go to Japan, experience the art and culture, and throw myself down that rabbit hole, which also having the facilities to produce work. It's something I have always had on my mind as the dream, as a lover of paper and print making.

Favourite creative icon, living or legend?

Erykah Badu.

She is creative in every sense of the word, and it has been wonderful to witness her career since the 1990s. She is constantly reinventing herself and challenging people's perceptions of who she is. She seems to have this incredible confidence and ability to play within her field, while also having a real mastery of her craft.

If you style was a celebrity, who would it be?

I don't think I have one - my style changes so much that I'm a bit of a chameleon with the way I dress.

I get inspiration from lots of different places, but I don't really look to celebrities for style or follow any particular celebrity that way.

Quote

'My work is very much about looking inwards and creating connection -connection with yourself, and then with others, through that exploration' - Emily Hana