Short CV and statement curriculum

Studio: Austurstræti 5, 101 Reykjavík Iceland 
Instagram: @emiliatelese.studio Email emilia@emiliatelese.com
More info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilia_Telese
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@emiartista
Born in Italy, in 1973. Lives and works in Reykjavík

Biography

Dr Emilia Telese (Italy, 1973, lives and works in Iceland) is an artist whose work is defined by contrasts: the sunlit wheat fields of southern Italy and the icy landscapes of Iceland, the intimate and the universal, the fragile and the enduring. Her practice often explores belonging, memory, and transience, using materials with personal or historical resonance such as mementoes, clothing, dust, and earth gathered from specific locations. In recent years, Telese has focused on the dialogue between performance and printmaking, combining physical presence with technical experimentation.Her practice crosses traditional media with time-based practice, including immersive, sensorial, interactive, and body-responsive technology, lens-based practice, performance, installation, and public art, as well as classic media such as painting, printmaking, and drawing.

She graduated in Painting from the Fine Arts Academy in Florence in 1996. After moving to the UK the same year, she studied Printmaking at the University of Brighton and completed a PhD at Loughborough University in 2020. Since relocating to Iceland in 2019, she has become an active member of the Icelandic Printmakers Association and the Icelandic Artists Association.

Her work has been shown internationally, with highlights including the Venice Biennale (2005), Ars Electronica in Linz (2002–03), the Louvre in Paris (2012), the Freud Museum in London (2010), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany, 2007), Chashama (New York City, USA, 2008), Centro Cultural Telemar (Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, 2010),and more recently the Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair (2023, 2025), two solo exhibitions at the Icelandic Printmakers Association Gallery, Reykjavík, a solo event at the Royal Festival Hall, London (2025) and the Royal Society of Painters- Printmakers IOPE exhibition at Bankside Gallery, London (2024).

She was awarded an AHRC Arts And Humanities Research Council bursary to write her PhD doctorate in Communication and Media from the University of Loughborough, UK, completed in 2022. Her doctorate focused on the social value and the individualization of artists in the UK between 1980 and 2010.

Emilia Telese is Michelangelo Pistoletto's Ambassador for his Third Paradise worldwide project, supported by the Fondazione Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.

She is a lecturer specializing in the relationship between art, society, economics, and artists' professional practice. She has taught at many UK and international institutions, such as The University of the Arts London, Royal College of Art, London; Manchester Metropolitan University; University of Brighton; University for the Creative Arts, Farnham; Sheffield Hallam University; Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design, London; the Iceland University of the Arts, Reykjavík; University of Maastricht, the Netherlands; University of Munich, Germany; the Pistoletto Foundation, Biella, Italy; the Fine Art Academy of Palermo; and Florence, Italy. She has directed practice-based teaching at UK and European events since 2001. She has led UK and European-wide debates about artists’ livelihoods, political art, and social engagement.

Emilia Telese is represented in the UK by The Artists’ Agency.

She has received awards by several funding bodies since 1999, such as Arts Council England, AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council) UK, and Awards for All, British Council, and others.

Her work is in private and public collections in the UK, USA, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Japan and Italy.

Selected Solo Exhibitions and Events

  • 2025: Dust Forest, Solo event, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK.
  • 2025: Terre Incise, Solo Exhibition, Museo Ecclesiastico Diocesano Museum, Troia, Italy.
  • 2025: Emilia Telese, Framsækin Eyding/Progressive Decay, Solo Exhibition, Grafiksalurinn - The Icelandic Printmakers Association, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2024: World Rebirth Online Performance, World Rebirth Day, Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.
  • 2024: Emilia Telese, presented by Rotary Club Foggia Capitanata, Civic Museum, Foggia Italy.
  • 2023: Emilia Telese, Hringfari, Solo Exhibition, Hotel Berjaya Marina, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2023: Emilia Telese, Ferna, Solo Exhibition, Grafiksalurinn - The Icelandic Printmakers Association, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2022: Emilia Telese, Hringfari - The Circumnavigator, Solo Exhibition, Gallery Grásteinn, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2020: Heimsálfa, Performance Broadcast, World Rebirth Day, Fondazione Michelangelo Pistoletto, Biella, Italy.
  • 2019: Dissipation I, Performance, Brighton, UK.
  • 2017: Il Canto dell'Emigrante, Multimedia Installation, TESTT Space, Durham, UK.
  • 2013: Everyday Icons, Solo Show, Rizhoma Gallery, Milan, Italy.
  • 2006: Emilia Telese, Solo Exhibition, Contemporary Visual Art Projects - Vestjylland, Denmark.
  • 2003: Solo Exhibition, Artsway Gallery, New Forest, UK.

Selected Group Exhibitions and Events

  • 2025: selected for the Ironbridge Printmaking Competition, Ironbridge, UK.
  • 2025: selected for the Curated Hang, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, UK.
  • 2025: Art without Borders Group Exhibition, Alcozer &J, Florence, Italy.
  • 2025: Panel Discussion, group exhibition, The Bomb Factory, Archway, London.
  • 2025: Breathing Space, Printmaking series, at the Dust 9th High Latitude Dust Workshop, Agricultural University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2024: Selected prints, International Original Prints Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, London, UK.
  • 2024: Selected prints, The RBSA Prize, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham, UK.
  • 2024: Selected prints, The Summer Exhibition, Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Birmingham, UK.
  • 2024: Selected prints, S/POL Printmaking Exhibition, Fine Arts Academy, Warsaw, Poland.
  • 2023: Luna Rossa, Print and Performance Installation, Surroundings/Environment, curated by Magma, Palazzo Grifoni, San Miniato, Italy.
  • 2023: Selected print, Curated Hang, Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair, London, UK.
  • 2023: Selected prints, S/POL Printmaking Exhibition, SÍM - The Association of Icelandic Artists, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2022: Artstops 2022, Public Art Exhibition, 80 Public Bus Stops, Durham, UK. Funded by Arts Council England.
  • 2022: Samkoma - Gathering IG, Íslensk Grafík - The Association of Icelandic Printmakers, Group Exhibition, IG Gallery, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2022: Migraciones Pedagogicas (Circular Museum), with Isidro Lopez-Aparicio, Portable Installation about European Migration, Museo Lazaro Galdiano, Madrid, Spain.
  • 2021: Torg Listamessa 2021, Art Fair, Galleri Körpulfsstaðir, Reykjavík, Iceland.
  • 2021: Artstops 2021, Public Art Exhibition, 80 Public Bus Stops, Durham, UK. Funded by Arts Council England.
  • 2020: LockdownRanga, Online Art Event, UK/Iceland.
  • 2020: Artstops 2020, Public Art Exhibition, 80 Public Bus Stops, Durham, UK. Funded by Arts Council England.
  • 2015: The Yak Attitude, Underdog Gallery, London, UK.
  • 2013: Drawing the Line, Drawing Exhibition, Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, Cornwall, UK.
  • 2013: Life Begins at Land's End, Participatory Public Art Performance, commissioned by Michelangelo Pistoletto, Rebirth Day, Musee du Louvre, Paris, France.
  • 2013: Wavy Banners, Public Art Project, Contemporary Visual Art Projects - Vestjylland, Denmark.
  • 2011: Beyond The Commission, Installation, The Gallery, Art Institute Bournemouth, UK.
  • 2011: Freud Museum 25th Anniversary Exhibition, London, UK.
  • 2010: Calm Bafferment, The Language of Gesture, Speaker, Non-Verbal Communication and Art Seminar, MoMA Museum of Modern Art Oxford, UK.
  • 2010: Perfect 10, Limited Edition Photographic Prints, Artists Associates Arts Council England - Leverhulme Foundation Commission, Artsway Gallery, Sway New Forest, UK.
  • 2009: Start Point HOT! Florence Art Factory, Group Show, Experimental Art Centre, Italy.
  • 2008: Viaggi - Journeys, Exhibition curated by Emilia Telese and Rebecca Marshall, Shot By The Sea Film Festival, Electric Palace Cinema, Hastings, UK.
  • 2008: The Ring of Fire, Installation, Blank Gallery, Brighton, The Brighton Festival, UK.
  • 2007: Performance for Future Time and Tide, Debate, Cultures of the Future, Shot by The Sea Film Festival, Hastings, UK.
  • 2007: The Enemy, Installation Performance, ZKM Centre for Contemporary Arts, Karlsruhe, Germany.
  • 2006/7: Emilia Paranoica, Live Art and Video Installation, Paranola Touring Show, Leeds City Art Gallery - Leeds, Focal Point Gallery - Southend on Sea, Freud Museum, London, UK.
  • 2006: Can We Break the Speed of Light?, Video and Digital Art Exhibition, Hastings, UK.
  • 2006: Rogo, Performance Installation, Freeshout Festival, Prato, Italy.
  • 2006: Life Circle, Environmental Installation, Arti Nel Bosco, Pordenone, Italy.
  • 2006: Curfew, Performance and Installation, City Running, Phoenix Gallery, Brighton Festival, UK.
  • 2005: Sleepwalking, Video Installation, Prg:Me, Centro Cultural Telemar, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • 2005: Self-Portrait with Victorian Mirror and Superman, Photography, Completely Naked, Campbell Works Gallery, London, UK.
  • 2005: Life of a Star and Sleepwalking, Performance and Video Installation, The New Forest Pavilion, Palazzo Zenobio, 51st Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy.
  • 2004: The Big Art Challenge, Live Performance, Art-Based Reality TV Programme, FIVE, UK.
  • 2004: Sleepwalking, Video Installation, [re:]collection - Documenting Memory and Remembering, Chashama Gallery, New York, USA.
  • 2003: Limited Edition Prints, Multiples, Permanent Gallery, Brighton, UK.
  • 2003: Dark Symphony, Collaboration with Tim Mark Didymus, 250,000-watt Acoustic Ambience, Donaupark, Ars Electronica, Linz, Austria.
  • 2003: Gesture III, Interactive Performance, Labculture, Bridport, Dorset, UK. (www.pva.org.uk).
  • 2002: Parallel Lives, Photography Installation, Collaboration with Igor Baskin, Ekaterinburg Museum of Modern Art, Siberia, Russia. (www.parallellives.narod.ru).
  • 2002: Stage Land, Freeshout Festival of New Contemporary Art, Prato, Italy.
  • 2002: Stage Land, Collaboration with Tim Mark Didymus, Devolve into II, Live Web-Stream Video and Sound Installation, Intermedium II Festival, ZKM (Zentrum fur Kunst Und Medientechnologie) Media Centre, Karlsruhe, Germany.
  • 2001: Transmit II, Interactive Performance with Liquidstatic, CYNET2001 Festival for Computer Aided Art, Dresden, Germany. (www.body-bytes.de, www.liquidstatic.org).
  • 2000: Rename Real Name, Sound Installation with Tim Mark Didymus, Generative Art 2000 Conference, Milan, Italy.
  • 2000: Transmit, Interactive Biofeedback Installation Performance, III Festival of Experimental Art & Performance, Manege Institute Of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
  • 2000: TM, Generative Sound Piece with Tim Mark Didymus, Werkleitz Biennale of Electronic Arts, Werkleitz, Germany. (www.werkleitz.de, www.kulturserver.de/home/TM).
  • 2000: 10x5, Multimedia Installation-Performance, Hastings Museum, Hastings, UK.
  • 1999: Mecha-Voices, Online On-Site Sound Installation with Tim Mark Didymus, Sound Drifting, Ars Electronica 99 Festival of Electronic Arts, Linz, Austria.
  • 1999: Out of the Blue, Performance, Queen's Park, Brighton Festival, Brighton, UK.
  • 1998: Life of a Star, Performance, Live Art Weekend, Fabrica Gallery, Brighton, UK.
  • 1995: Kaben, Performance & Design Installation, at "Ecologica 95", International Ecology Expo, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy.

Residencies

  • 2011/2013: Sussex Year of Culture, funded by the Sussex Medical School Artists Associates, Artsway Gallery, New Forest, UK. Awarded by the Leverhulme Foundation.
  • 2007: The Rice Project, Public Art Installation with Community Participation, Brighton/Scotland, UK. A project by Edoardo Malagj, Italy, Emilia Telese, Guyan Porter, and Chris Biddlescombe, Scotland (The Edible Construction Company); Jubilee Library, Brighton, UK.
  • 2000: Dreamland, Conceptual Installation Performance in Collaboration with Isidro Lopez-Aparicio, Titanti Art Festival, Liberated Territory of Western Sahara.
  • 2000: Le Quattro Stagioni, Multimedia Arts Residency, Preston Primary School near Canterbury, UK. Funded by Year Of the Artist Awards, Arts Council England.

Reviews and media

BBC2, Current TV, Five, RAI (Italian national TV), BBC Southern Counties Radio Hampshire, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, The Times, El Pais, The St Petersbourg Times, The Reykjavík Grapevine, La Nazione, The Brighton Argus, A-N magazine, Art Monthly, Art Review, Arts-All, New Zealand, The Latest, The West Sussex Gazette, www.webartisti.it, www.nettime.org, www.neural.it, www.absolutearts.com, www.newsitaliapress.it and other online, paper and media sources.

Emilia Telese’s work featured in Kuppers, P (2007) The Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Art (Minnesota University Press 2007 ISBN: 0-8166-4653-8), 

Academic Research & teaching

2020 – 2024: Regular guest lecturer in professional practice, visual arts, LHÍ. Between 2020 and 2024 I was asked to give guest lectures on artists’ professional practice at LHÍ, both for the BA and MA students.

2023 - 2024: MA supervisor, visual arts, LHÍ In 2023/2024 Academic year, I was asked to supervise an MA student at LHÍ by Jóhannes Dagsson.

2023: Student Mentor, Loughborough University London.

2019: Course designer, Professional Practice, Visual Arts, LHÍ In 2019 I was asked by Bryndís Snaebjornsdóttir and Páll Hakur Björnsson to design a professional practice module for the MA Visual Arts Course at LHÍ, which I led and taught the same year.

2001 to current: Regular guest Lecturer in Professional Practice, Arts & Economics and related subjects at the following UK and European institutions:

  • Royal College of Art – London
  • University of the Arts – London (Byam Shaw College – Chelsea School of Art – Central St Martins – London College of Communication)
  • Sheffield Hallam University
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • Glasgow School of Art
  • Academy of Fine Art – Palermo and Florence, Italy
  • Cittadellarte - Michelangelo Pistoletto Foundation – Biella Italy
  • University of Brighton
  • Farnham College of the Creative Arts
  • Chichester College
  • A-N The Artists’ Information Company - UK
  • The Artists and The Others – Netherlands - Germany

2013 - 2014: Lecturer and course designer in Professional Practice, Performance and Visual Arts, University of Brighton.

2010 – 2011: Lecturer and course designer in Professional Practice – London Metropolitan University.

Published Papers 

Telese, E (2025): Undoing The Romanticisation Of The Starving Artist, The Reykjavík Grapevine, April 2025, cover feature.

Telese, E (2025): A Place to Work, Reflections on artists’ studio spaces in Iceland, Myndlist Á Islandi, Issue 5.

Telese, E (2022): Félagshagfræðilegt gildi listafólks á íslandi: verðug umræða . Artists’ socio-economic value in iceland: a discussion worth having Myndlist Á Íslandi, issue 2.

Telese, E (2022): Félagshagfræðilegt gildi listafólks á íslandi: verðug umræða . Artists’ socio-economic value in iceland: a discussion worth having Myndlist Á Íslandi, issue 2.

Telese, E (2021): The making of the artist, from 'genius' to 'professional': social value and individualisation in UK visual artists, 1980–2010. Loughborough University. Thesis. https://doi.org/10.26174/thesis.lboro.16732468.v1.

Telese, E (2009): The Gift Controversy Presented at "Creative industries and Regional policies: Making Space and Giving Space", The Regional Studies Association Research Network on Creative Industries and the Regions, University of Birmingham September 2009.

Telese, E et al (2009): The profession of the artist in the real world: how does academic study and research relate to the art ecosystem? Dynamics and dialogue beyond academia, towards professional practice in Europe, in Telese, E, Cummins, S, Wiecherink, A, Pybus, A, Atherton, K and Malleo, M A, “Transition and Progression in Fine Art Education and Research” - PARADOX: The Fine Art European Forum, Accademia di Belle Arti, Palermo, September 2009  - published on http://paradoxfineart.net/paradox/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Paradox-palermo.pdf.

Telese, E (2007): Shaping artists’ spaces -The Networking Artists’ Networks initiative and the reshaping and enabling of cultural space , within “Sensi/able Spaces - Space, Art and the Environment “ - SPARTEN conference, Reykjavík, June 2006 published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007 Shaping Artists Spaces looks at the distribution of networks as shared space for creativity and artistic representation.

Telese, E (2007) Ed.: Trade-Off, an a-n The Artists’ Information Company publication about the art market from an economic, social and artist-led regeneration point of view.

In addition to the above, Dr Telese has written in excess of 40 articles for the most important UK artists’ advocacy publication, A-N Magazine (Artists’Newsletter) between 2009 and 2015.

Education

2024: Certificate, Philosophy of the Mind, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MITX course.

2021: Certificate, Antifragility in a Changing World, MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - MITX course.

2018-2022: PhD Doctorate, Social Science, University of Loughborough, Loughborough, UK. Thesis: "The Making of The Artist - From Genius to Professional - Social Value and Individualisation in UK Visual Artists 1980-2010." (AHRC CDA Scholarship).

2015-2018: PhD Doctoral Candidate, Cultural and Media Policy Studies, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. (AHRC CDA Scholarship).

2004: Short Course, Digital Art Practice, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology), Liverpool, UK.

2003: Individual Short Course, Video Publishing, Artsway Gallery, New Forest, UK.

2002: Certificate in Arts Management, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.

1999-2003: CCE Printmaking, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK.

1998: Desktop Video Publishing Short Course, Brighton City College, Brighton, UK.

1996: BA and MA in Painting, Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, Italy.

Memberships

Emilia Telese is a member of the following associations:

  • SÍM – Samband Íslensk Listamann – The Association of Icelandic Artists
  • ÍG – Íslensk Grafík – Association of Icelandic Printmakers

More information about any of the above can be requested to Emilia Telese at emilia@emiliatelese.com