Emily Hartley-Skudder, studio portrait
Photo Credit
Emily Hartley-Skudder
Petite Spa
Aotearoa Art Fair
1 – 4 May 2025
For the Aotearoa Art Fair 2025, Jhana Millers Gallery presents Petite Spa, a solo presentation of painting and installation by Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based artist Emily Hartley-Skudder. The fair wouldn’t be complete without a bathroom showroom booth—furnished with a distinctly unfashionable shub and bidet, and ice-cream-parlour pink and purple lino—with exquisite paintings to match.
Within Emily’s new suite of meticulous oil paintings, there is a shift towards the surreal: bathtubs fly, pool inflatables hover, and sinks are filled from the sky. Known for her exploration of the bathroom as a site of everyday ritual, escapism, and control, the artist has now come full circle—her chosen still-life subjects shrinking back down to a diminutive scale. Emily arranges miniature worlds in her studio, capturing them in-camera with high-speed flash to crystallise splashes of sparkling liquid, riffing on product photography. She carefully translates these photographs into paint, creating humorous, off-kilter images that correspond to the installation they sit within.
Petite Spa takes its name from a brand of single-use shampoo and conditioner bottles populating motel bathrooms—affordable luxury, on us. Step into Emily’s bathroom tableaux—both IRL and within her paintings—and perhaps be inspired to reconsider your grey-and-white home décor decisions, or at least leave with a sugary, retro taste in your mouth.
Emily Hartley-Skudder
Petite Spa
Aotearoa Art Fair
1 – 4 May 2025
For the Aotearoa Art Fair 2025, Jhana Millers Gallery presents Petite Spa, a solo presentation of painting and installation by Te Whanganui-a-Tara-based artist Emily Hartley-Skudder. The fair wouldn’t be complete without a bathroom showroom booth—furnished with a distinctly unfashionable shub and bidet, and ice-cream-parlour pink and purple lino—with exquisite paintings to match.
Within Emily’s new suite of meticulous oil paintings, there is a shift towards the surreal: bathtubs fly, pool inflatables hover, and sinks are filled from the sky. Known for her exploration of the bathroom as a site of everyday ritual, escapism, and control, the artist has now come full circle—her chosen still-life subjects shrinking back down to a diminutive scale. Emily arranges miniature worlds in her studio, capturing them in-camera with high-speed flash to crystallise splashes of sparkling liquid, riffing on product photography. She carefully translates these photographs into paint, creating humorous, off-kilter images that correspond to the installation they sit within.
Petite Spa takes its name from a brand of single-use shampoo and conditioner bottles populating motel bathrooms—affordable luxury, on us. Step into Emily’s bathroom tableaux—both IRL and within her paintings—and perhaps be inspired to reconsider your grey-and-white home décor decisions, or at least leave with a sugary, retro taste in your mouth.
