'Smithereens' refers to the fact that each artwork represents a fragment of an art practice continuously focused on researching the never ending possibilities of form and colour combinations
View in 3D HERE
Florence Blanchard is a French painter, muralist, and screen-printer, who began writing graffiti in the early 1990’s under the moniker, Ema. Blanchard spent 10 years in New York, where she graduated with a PhD from NYU in molecular biology, and now resides in Sheffield, UK, producing small batches of intricate limited edition screen-prints and paintings from her home studio. Her work is directly inspired by both of her experiences working as a scientist, and writing graffiti. Abstraction has allowed Blanchard to have a more personal take on the same creative energy that fuelled her practice since the beginning, her shapes now have a similar role to what her letters used to do, providing a frame for experimentation with colour and composition.
The shapes she paints represent imagined molecular landscapes, where particles float around fluidly, and the viewer is given this imagined ‘microscope’ to observe the world from a different angle. Her artworks aim to magnify what the human eye can’t see. By offering a window into this imaginary molecular world, she intends to question our idea of visual perception.
Taking advantage of the versatility of fluid molecular patterns, her work conducts visual studies on the fluidity and structure of our surroundings - the unfamiliarities of which aim to confront viewers with a startling and insightful window into the fabric of the universe.