Emily Gillbanks

Emily Gillbanks (b. 1999) is a Painter and Researcher from East Anglia, United Kingdom. Her paintings observe people akin to a data attainment process. She views people as evolving data, blending social realism's legacy with modernity. Through questioning what it means to paint from life today her paintings explore how technology shapes new portrayals of people. She studied for her MA in Painting at the Royal College of Art where she was made a two-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and was awarded The Fribourg Philanthropies painting prize when she graduated in 2022. At the start of 2023, Emily collaborated with the Barbican Centre on a social media campaign discussing her paintings in conjunction with Alice Neel’s retrospective Hot Off The Griddle. The campaign centred around questioning what it means to paint people from life today. In the same year, she had her first solo exhibition Temporary Sitters at JD Malat Gallery, she was the Chargeurs philanthropies artist in residence in Marseille, and the first artist to be resident in the Daler-Rowney paint factory in Bracknell. In 2021, she was awarded The de László Medal for Excellence in Painting by The de László Foundation for her painting Three Things which was exhibited in Mall Galleries as part of the Royal Society of British Artists Annual Exhibition. In 2020, she was also shortlisted for the BP Portrait Prize Exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London and The Freelands Painting Prize. It was in 2020, that Emily also exhibited with Hospital Rooms and graduated with her BA(Hons) in Fine Art at the University of Suffolk. Her paintings have been exhibited across East Anglia, as well as in London, Milan, and Los Angeles. Her paintings have also been featured in Tatler magazine, the Bloomsbury publication ‘Portraits for the NHS’, the Telegraph arts and culture section, and the Londonist.










