Biography
Emily Bates (b. Basingstoke, UK 1970) lives and works in Amsterdam. She became recognised for a body of work, or ‘impossible’ dresses, made during the 1990’s, that were constructed from knitted human hair, such as Dress, Depilator and Sibilla. Exhibitions include Dressing the Century: 100 Years of Art and Fashion at the Hayward Gallery, London and Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg (1998); Weaving the World, Yokohama Museum of Art (1999); Out of the Closet and The Unexpected, at Sotheby’s Auctioneers in London, 2000 and New York, 2001; and Body Extensions at Mudac – Musée de design et d’arts appliqués contemporains, Lausanne (2004). She has received several artist residency and fellowship awards, notably from the Pier Arts Centre, Orkney and Nordiska Akvarellmuseet, Sweden (both 2000); S-Air in Sapporo, Japan, 2002-3; Lijiang Studio, China, 2006 and 2007; and as the Dutch Affiliated Visual Arts Fellow at the American Academy in Rome in 2008 and more recently she was selected by the Mondriaan Fund and MMCA Seoul to undertake a 4 month artist in residence at MMCA Changdong, South Korea (2017). During the summer of 2021 she was resident with Van Gogh Huis Museum in Brabant, the Netherlands on the estate of De Moeren, weaving narratives and histories of the land into a new series of works with photography, peat and black ink. She has exhibited widely and many international collections hold her work, including Nottingham Castle Museum and Paisley Art Gallery and Museum, UK.
