Emily Motto is a London-based artist whose work spans sculpture, installation and drawing.
She’s interested in how materials behave and how we experience space through art. Her sculptures often use everyday items and explore ideas of balance, structure and play. This summer, Emily is working with ACAVA as part of our Flourish programme, leading hands-on clay workshops for families at Maxilla Walk Studios in North Kensington and Barham Park Studios in Wembley.
In this Q&A, Emily shares more about her practice, her interest in working with families and children, and what inspires her as an artist. This interview is part of a series featuring artists from ACAVA’s studio and community network. Visit this page to read more.
Your name
Emily Motto
Your art practice in a few words
Sculpture, installation and drawing.
Where can we find your work?
You can find work on my website, in progress on Instagram, and in person during Frieze week this Autumn at A.P.T. Gallery, London (opening 3 October 2025).
Tell us a bit about yourself
Hello! I’m Emily (she/her) and an artist based in London. I work in a materially-led way between sculpture, installation and drawing, often creating playful and unstable forms, arenas and mazes. I love working collaboratively – both with the materials I’m using and with other artists and communities when creating collective works.
What Flourish programmes have you worked on recently and what did you do?
I am running Grow:Clay this summer for Flourish families at both Barham Park in Wembley and Maxilla in North Kensington. Over the three days at each location, we will be growing our clay modelling skills – from creating textures and imprints with nature that we find around us, to building armatures that support sculptures to grow tall and stand strong. This was inspired by some of the Flourish families mentioning that they wanted to explore working with clay in a previous workshop. We will be exploring how we can transform clay into our own unique and imaginative works, and we’ll be using the nature we find in the gardens to inspire us along the way.
What interests you about being a Flourish facilitator, and/or has it influenced your practice, or your way of thinking about art?
Definitely! I started working with Flourish after facilitating ACAVA’s Young Artist Programme in 2021 and have been so inspired by how working with young people and families can evolve ideas of what art can do and be. I’m really excited by the different directions that families take the materials that I bring to sessions, and the stories and games that end up being created from the things we make together.
Do you have any upcoming projects or exhibitions you’d like us to platform?
Currently I’m working on a project called New Views through Abstraction supported by Arts Council England, working with school groups in South East London to develop new ‘looking-devices’ to playfully support the viewing of new abstract works. I’m working with painter John Robertson on an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures opening at A.P.T. Gallery, London, this October.
What themes or questions are central to your work right now?
I’m fascinated by perceptions of space/volume and flatness; I’m really intrigued by how sculptural forms can play between the two, and how this can resonate with our current, and increasingly hybrid, visual experiences.
I’ve also really been enjoying finding forms that resonate with character, presence, and poise. I’m continually drawn to how art can share in a bodily sense of space with viewers, and what gives an object a suggestion of character has recently been a big question and guide for my practice.
What materials do you work with most often, and why?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve been using lots of large rolls of heavy-duty floor card to make sculptures – it’s so malleable and light, and has been great for experimenting with. I particularly like how I’m able to change its structure through the materials I apply to it (such as cement, papier mâché, plaster and paint).
Since being in residence at Benson-Sedgwick Engineering’s workshop in 2021 I’ve also been working with sheet steel and aluminium to hold more flexible and precarious forms in place, and at a larger more durable scale.
Vibrant string, threads and tapes have been vital materials of mine when making things too – I love how practical they can be when used to physically hold things together, whilst also appearing to create a drawn line or mark through a space.
How has your practice changed over time?
Things have gotten much flatter over the last decade of making work, as mentioned, often beginning by working with sheet surfaces. I’ve found my works tend to be made from distinct parts that can be disassembled and reused now, as opposed to more solid forms. I’ve been thinking a lot about flat-packability. About making and moving stuff. About bringing things, volumes, objects into the world for [an amount of] time. About temporality, sustainability, endurance.
Did you study art formally? If so, what did you take from that experience?
Yes – I studied my art foundation at Central Saint Martins in London, where I found my love of sculpture. I worked in the sculpture department there, and it was brilliant to have the freedom to experiment with so many materials that I hadn’t tried before, like plaster, latex and metalwork.
I then went on to study Fine Art at The Ruskin. It was exciting to experiment in a more interdisciplinary way there alongside our small cohort. We also had more formal training on drawing from life and anatomy, which is something that still influences my work today, both in my teaching as an artist educator and in my sculptures’ relationships to the figure.
What’s unique about creating alongside families and children at Flourish
Working together across all ages feels very special at Flourish; adults and children work alongside each other, sharing skills and supporting one another. We are all equally ‘artists’ when we are together at Flourish, and it’s exciting to see how inspiration spreads between generations whilst we’re making.
The relationship with the outdoors has always been so special and key to creative sessions at Flourish too. Both Barham Park and Maxilla have beautiful outdoor spaces that families find inspiring when integrated into our sessions – as a resource for materials, a place to discover and create things, and space to run around and regenerate!
Emily’s workshops with Flourish reflect her interest in playful making and working with others. Whether she’s creating large sculptures or developing ideas with families, her approach is open, hands-on and collaborative. You can join Emily’s clay-making sessions this August at Maxilla Walk Studios and Barham Park Studios, free for families with primary-aged children.
