About

Emily Wortel’s work is the result of how she deals with the pressure of imposed beauty standards. She uses the body as material to transcend judgments of beautiful or ugly, right or wrong.

Through isolation and fragmentation she abstracts postures and details. In her search for form she simultaneously conceals and reveals: the body falls apart and emerges anew, in a continuous process.

Photography functions as both end result and working material. She cuts images into fragments and shapes, and rearranges them into collages and installations. These photographic interventions also form the starting point for sculptures in ceramics.

Education

2024 – 2026 Academy of Photography, De Fotoacademie, Amsterdam
2020 – 2022 Photography programme, De Fotolocatie, Groningen
1997 – 2001 Academy Minerva, Faculty of Arts, Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Groningen

Exhibitions

2026 Group exhibition Buy My Darlings, Amsterdam
2026 Group exhibition Big Art, Rotterdam
2026 Graduation exhibition, De Fotoacademie, Loods 6, Amsterdam
2025 Group exhibition, House of Revision Kunst Salon, Haarlem
2025 Exhibition, Wall House #2, Groninger Museum, Groningen
2025 Exhibition and society talks Being Naked, Noorderzon Performing Arts Festival, Groningen
2024 Pop-up window gallery, Kunstpunt Groningen
2024 FOCUS, featuring 10 Groningen artists, Groningen
2024 Kunst aan de Vaart, Assen
2024 Exhibition, Loods 6, Amsterdam
2024 Pictura Wintersalon, Groningen
2023 Exhibition, NonFiction Photo Festival, Groningen
2023 Exhibition at Y2, Groningen
2022 Group exhibition 100 x KUNST IN DE AKERK, Groningen
2021 Interactive art object with Lambert Kamps, Let’s Gro Festival, Groningen
2021 Group exhibition, Noorderlicht International Photography, The Makable Mind, Groningen
2021 Group exhibition, Pictura: Corona en verkoop, Groningen
2021 Collaboration / mentoring of Minerva students, Climate Adaptation Week, Groningen

Photo: Gea Schenk