Presented by the Contemporary Art Society, 2023/2024

Emma Prempeh’s practice delves into the concepts of distant memories. The starting point to her work is the matter of blackness – the tonal properties of the colour establishes the ground to her paintings and provides a cinematic basis to invoke memories of events, people, and places.

Her works explore questions of what it is it like to feel in-between; where we decide what is our home and how this is explored or experienced by individuals across the African diasporic plane and those who cross and interweave within it.

Family and generational continuity is often the subject of Prempeh’s paintings, relational ties are explored through the depiction of her mother and grandma and their experiences. It’s the People That Make a Home presents a sense of warmth and features her grandma sharing photographs. The cat in the background is totemistic of Prempeh’s presence and a symbol of rest.

Prempeh sees her grandma’s home as a place of refuge and comfort with her home being an expression of her cultural identity.1936 portrays the feet of Prempeh’s grandma emphasising Prempeh’s roots in the UK due to her grandma’s movement to Britain.

The Harris has relatively few works by women artists, particularly figurative paintings which explore experiences of identity, representations of diversity and intergenerational family life. It’s the People That Make a Home and 1936 are important additions to the collection. With particular focus on narratives that explore identity, heritage and a sense of belonging the Harris has an ongoing commitment to working with local communities including Preston’s Windrush generation and descendants.