Emma Talbot — The Phases of the Moon (2024)

Emma Talbot (b. 1969) is among the most distinctive voices in international contemporary art, recognised for an interdisciplinary practice spanning painting, textile, narrative and psychological introspection. Her works stage fluid mythologies—metamorphic bodies, archaic symbols and cyclical structures—through which she addresses femininity, emotion, politics and the spiritual anxieties of the present. Institutional visibility has been a decisive factor in consolidating her museum-grade profile, including presentations at Whitechapel Gallery, Turner Contemporary and Tate St Ives, and her selection to represent the United Kingdom at the 2022 Venice Biennale.

Created in 2024, The Phases of the Moon crystallises a central axis of Talbot’s iconography: the body as a site of transformation, and the lunar cycle as a metaphor for change, regeneration and shifting identity. Executed in acrylic on silk, the surface reads as both luminous and permeable, intensifying the sensation of figures interlacing in a cosmic, ritual choreography. At the composition’s core, an oval form—at once womb, aperture and portal—anchors the image as an energetic nucleus, while large radial flowers, reminiscent of suns or moons, establish a hypnotic cadence across the field. The palette’s bright yellows, deep greens and sharpened contrasts heighten the work’s charged atmosphere, suspended between imagination and spiritual allegory.

As a large-scale, unique work on silk—widely regarded as one of the most sought-after formats within Talbot’s recent production—this piece aligns subject matter, material ambition and institutional relevance in a single statement. With demand supported by growing European and international attention and reinforced by her increasing presence within museum contexts, The Phases of the Moon offers collectors a high-recognition, curatorially legible acquisition within an artist’s ascending market trajectory.