Emma Stibbon has long been attracted to icy places and the reflective light and atmospherics of cold climates. In the face of rapid global warming her impulse is to draw and print. She is acting as a witness to this poignant and fragile beauty as the ice shelves and glaciers are melting and changing beyond recognition. Ice Tongue has all the immediacy of a watercolour made on location. It is printed in various shades of blue and black from multiple polymer gravure plates.
Emma Stibbon depicts landscapes and environments undergoing dynamic change. Often working in collaboration with scientists, Stibbon researches, explores and encounters her subjects on expeditions to remote geographical regions and in urban areas, enticed by monuments to human endeavour.
In 2013 Stibbon was elected as a Royal Academician.
Stibbon’s work is held in international collections including UK: The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery; Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Bournemouth; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; University of Chichester Collection; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, New Hall Art Collection & Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle on Tyne, New Art Gallery, Walsall. USA: San Diego University Collection, Germany: Céline & Heiner Bastian, Potsdam Museum, Berlin; Stadtmuseum, Berlin.