Slow Heat

Claremorris Gallery is delighted to present Slow Heat, a new body of work by Emma Stroude.

The exhibition has its roots in a collaboration with three actors, whose performances became a catalyst for the paintings. Through this process, Stroude explored themes of women’s resilience, transformation, and the need to move beyond inherited preconceptions. As she reflects, “Slow Heat has emerged from a collaboration with 3 actors. Together we worked with the question of women’s potentiality, their ability to endure, acknowledgement of their innate capabilities and the need to move beyond past preconceptions.”

Stroude’s paintings also developed in dialogue with wider cultural influences. The writings of Virginia Woolf were a constant presence in her studio, particularly Woolf’s use of fire and heat as metaphors for transformation – energies needed to dismantle and rebuild systems that constrain women’s equality. These ideas resonate in the steady, simmering intensity of Stroude’s images, which embody not revolution but persistence and endurance.

As she worked from her collaborative source material, Stroude began to notice the emergence of archetypal figures that link back to both myth and art history. She recognised echoes of familiar characters – from the Fool to Mary Magdalene – while also finding connections to feminist artists such as Paula Rego, Rebecca Horn, and Ana Mendieta.

The title Slow Heat captures the spirit of the exhibition. As the artist explains, “I imagine this heat as the steadfast intention that permeates my paintings. I paint the performed experiences of the female body through the female lens. In these works, young women undergo transformation, protect each other and themselves, they share love, loss and hope together without shame and they invite you, the viewer, to do the same.”