Victoria Richards
Emily | 2019-23 | oil-based clay, plaster and watercolour | 44 x 22 x 15cm
Local Contemporary Art Prize 2025 – Finalist
Image courtesy of the artist
Victoria Richards | Emily | 2023 | oil-based clay, plaster and watercolour | 44 x 22 x 15cm
There is a quiet mystery in the human face—an ambiguity that invites interpretation. Emily is a study of this intrigue. Sculpted in oil-based clay and cast in plaster, she exists in a moment between thought and emotion, her expression shifting with the viewer’s gaze. Is she amused? Reflective? Melancholic?
Faces have always fascinated me—the way a single tilt of the mouth or crease of the brow can evoke endless narratives. In Emily, I sought to capture that delicate balance, where emotion is both present and withheld, offering the viewer space to connect, question, and imagine.
Suspended between realism and abstraction, permanence and fragility, Emily is not just a portrait but an invitation—to linger, to wonder, and to see a reflection of oneself in another.