About Emilia Telese
Dr. Emilia Telese is an artist and academic working between Reykjavík, Iceland, and the UK. Born in Italy, she graduated with an MA in Painting from the Fine Arts Academy in Florence in 1996. Moved to the UK in 1997, where she subsequently furthered her studies at the University of Brighton (Printmaking), University of Sussex (Arts Management), University of Warwick (Cultural Policy), and University of Loughborough (PhD in Social Science). She has exhibited worldwide since 1994, including the Louvre (Paris, 2012), the New Forest Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (Venice, 2005), Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 2002-2003), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2007), Chashama (New York City, USA, 2008), Centro Cultural Telemar (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 2010), Manege (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2000), Leeds City Gallery, Artsway (New Forest, UK) and the Freud Museum (London, UK). She has presented her work at major events at Tate Britain, The Royal Festival Hall, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Oxford, Manchester Contemporary, Merchant City Festival, Glasgow, the Brighton Festival, and more.
Dust Forest
Dust Forest showcases Emilia Telese's profound exploration of themes including belonging, transience, and the emotional aspects of soil.
In this series, Emilia Telese features monotype engravings of Betula Pubescens (Icelandic birch), made by the artist using pigment derived from Icelandic dust left beneath retreating glaciers. This unique process transforms ancient geological matter into delicate visual narratives, capturing the ephemeral nature of glaciers and their profound connection to the landscape. Dust Forest showcases Telese's profound exploration of themes including belonging, transience, and the emotional aspects of soil.
The resulting works possess a subtle texture and ethereal quality, evoking a sense of both fragility and deep time. This seruies explores the surprising link between deserts and forests in nature's chronology. Iceland today has the largest desert in Europe, with such areas larger than Denmark. They are a result of medieval Viking agricultural practices, when settlers cut and burned native birch forests that never fully recovered. Icelandic dust storms, of which there are more than 135 each year, can blow dust over 3,500 km, reaching the High Arctic and mainland Europe reaching the United Kingdom up to 30 days per year. Dust Forest tells the story of those glaciers, once covering nearly all of Iceland, beneath which lies a hidden rainforest, revealed only due to extreme melting in recent decades.
Breathing Space
Breathing Space is a body of conceptual monotypes by Emilia Telese.
"Breathing Space" is a body of work by Emilia Telese, building on the artist’s previous experimental printmaking series, "Progressive Decay". The series uniquely employs volcanic and atmospheric dust, collected by scientist Dr. Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserová from Icelandic dust storms, to create inks for mezzotint engravings on copper plates. The resulting monoprints, made between November 2024 and February 2025, are modular pieces that combine the ephemeral quality of dust with the permanence of copper engraving, reflecting on the tensions between the transient and the enduring, and the human relationship with natural and environmental forces.
Exhibited at:
Dust Conference 2025, The Agricultural University of Iceland
The MED Museum, Troja (Italy) 2025
The Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair – Curated Hang 2025