My practice is built on encounter — those rare moments when a human presence carries a visceral charge and demands to be painted.
I work through a dialectical method, deliberately creating opposition between control and resistance, classical discipline and material unpredictability. This way of working is not strategic — it is natural to me. I thrive in resistance. Meaning emerges from pressure.
The work depends on two elements in productive tension: a magnetic figure embodying human complexity, and physical grounds built from material with history. Off-cut canvas, upcycled wood panels, torn paper — surfaces that carry their own stories.
These grounds are layered, scraped, erased, rebuilt. They are tangible research — unfiltered and impulsive. Before the surface settles, the figure enters as opposing force. Classical principles become my anchor as I navigate this ground, testing how far realism can stretch under pressure.
I am interested in what happens when a human image is held inside a living surface — when classical realism is pushed to its limits through material resistance. What emerges is neither purely classical nor purely abstract, but synthesis formed through conflict. The work lives in that tension: intimate yet unstable, controlled yet open.
BIO
Italian-born artist Rosso Emerald Crimson is based in London, where she has lived and worked since the early 2000s. After earning a Master’s degree in Human Rights and International Relations and working in advertising, she turned to painting in her thirties, driven by a growing need to engage more directly with human presence, material, and meaning.
She retrained at the London Atelier of Representational Art and through private mentorships with artists who profoundly shaped her understanding of realism and painterly structure.
In her early work, Rosso explored resistance to tradition through a strongly narrative approach, often using the body and self-portraiture as sites of exposure and confrontation. Over time, this resistance shifted from subject matter to process itself. As her practice evolved, tension became embedded in the material and structural language of the work — through complex grounds, physical surfaces, and the deliberate testing of classical principles.
Rosso’s work has received multiple accolades, including the Emerald Winter Pride Award (2016), First Prize in the Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize (now the WIA Prize), and First Prize in the Jackson’s Open Painting Prize (Portrait/Figurative Category, 2019). Her first solo exhibition was held at Cass Art’s flagship gallery in London.
She was a selected contestant on Sky Portrait Artist of the Year (2019, 2021) and a finalist in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize (2021), which led to international representation with galleries including Sugarlift (New York), Principle Gallery (USA), James Baird Gallery (Canada), and Romfjord Gallery (Norway).
More recently, she was selected for ModPortrait 2024 and exhibited with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, ING Discerning Eye, and the Society of Women Artists. Her work has been shown at the MEAM Museum and the Mall Galleries, and is now part of the Soho House Collection .
Rosso’s paintings have appeared on the covers of Pratique Des Art (France), The Artist Magazine (UK) and Arena Magazine (Australia), and included in Portraits for NHS Heroes (2021). Her work and writing have been featured in International Artist Magazine, Colossal, Create! Magazine, Evolved Mag, My Modern Met, Artists & Illustrators, and Vogue India.
She is the founder of Rosso Art School, an independent platform where she shares her practice, creative process, and studio thinking with artists worldwide.
Competitions and Awards
2025 — Royal Institute of Oil painters Annual Exhibition (ROI)
2024 — Finalist for ModPortrait 2024
2024 — SWA (Society of Women Artist)
2023 — ROI (Royal Institute of Oil Painters) 2023
2023 — ING Discerning Eye 2023
2021 — Finalist in the “Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize” 2021 (traditional art)
2021 — Honorable mention “Blue Review Art Prize” 2021 (New York)
2021 — Shortlisted for “The Viking Cruise Art Prize 2021” (A&I magazine)
2020 — Contestant in “Sky Portrait Artist of The Year SERIES 7”, PAOTY Sky Arts
2019 — WINNER of the Portrait/Figure Prize of the “Jackson Open Painting Prize 2019” (JOPP2019)
2019 — “The Artist's Exhibition Award”, TALP OPEN 2019
2019 — “The Harbour Gallery Award”, TALP OPEN 2019
2019 — Contestant in “Sky Portrait Artist of The Year 2019”, PAOTY Sky Arts
2018 — Shortlisted for “Artist of The Year 2018”, Mall Galleries (Artists and Illustrator)
2017 — WINNER of the “Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize 2017”
2016 — WINNER of the “Emerald Winter Pride Art Awards 2016”
PRESS & publications
International Artist Magazine (issue 158 / 8-pages feature)
The Artist Magazine (UK) (cover + 4 issues)
Colossal
Vogue India
Create Magazine
Evolved mag
Colossal
John Dalton Podcast (“Rosso Emerald Crimson Uncut”, an interview with John Dalton Dec.2021)
Artsummit
Artists&Illustrator
“Arena magazine”, cover for issue 161, Aug. 2019
The Artist’s Magazine
“Portraits for NHS Heroes”, Nov. 2020
“The Artist Magazine”, October issue, 2019
Anuario "Arte y Libertad XIII", Artelibre, 2018
The Guide Artists, Interview of the month, Issue 11, Jan. 2018
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
“Be Nice”, Noho Galleries, Fitzrovia (London), May 2025
“Around the World”, Principle Gallery , Charleston (US), June-Aug. 2024
MODPORTRAIT 2023, Meam Museum, Barcelona, May - Nov 2024
SWA (Society of Women Artist), Mall galleries, London, June 2024
ROI - Royal Society of Oil Painters, Mall galleries, London, Dec 2023
ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, Nov 2023
Mimesis, Representanional Art 2023, MEAM Barcelona, Apr-June 2023
La Favola, Antonella Scarfone Gallery, Pisa, 2023
Artdom Project, Grand Hotel, Oslo, April 2023
”Texture” exhibition, Principle Gallery (US) - November/December 2022
WAGMI, CAP Gallery, Kuwait City (Kuwait) - November 2022
NFT London (displayed on the entry ticket)
Woman, James Baird Gallery, Canada - October 2022
Uncurated, Stoerpunkt, Munich, July/Aug 2022
NFTNYC 2022 - June 21 - 24th
Many Moons, Rober Lange Studio Gallery, US - May/June 2022
Sky Art Self-portrait Exhibition, Compton Verney Hall, UK - Feb-June 2022
The Blue Review Art Prize exhibition, Sugarlift gallery, (New York/ online on Etsy), Nov. 2021
Major Figures, Saatchiart, Oct/Dec. 2021
Summer exhibition, GALLERI RAMFJORD, Oslo (July 2021)
“The Viking Cruise Art Exhibition” (shortlist group exhibition), London
“The Artists’ Exhibition”, with “The Artists Magazine”, Patching Art Centre, Notthingam
“Women in Art”, Zebra One Gallery, London (March 2021)
“Group Show”, Zebra One Gallery, London (Feb. 2021)
2019-2020
Summer Exhibition, Green & Stone Gallery, Fulham, London (Aug. 2020)
The Artist Collection, Patchings Art Centre, Nottinghamshire, October - November 2020
THE OTHER ART FAIR, CALM art collective x Connor Brothers, London, March 2020
Elevate 02, The Shard, London, December 2019
Art Fair East, Underdog Gallery, Norwich, November 2019
Utopia, BSMT relaunch, BSMT, London, October 2019
Summer Exhibition, Underdog Gallery, London, August 2019
The Artist Open Art Competition (TALP OPEN 2019), Patching Art Centre, Notthinghamshire, 2019
AFFORDABLE ART FAIR, Jackson Painting Prize Finalists, Hampstead Heath, May 2019
The Occult and Symbolism, Underdog Gallery, London, April 2019
Selected past exhibitions
Art Fair East, Underdog Gallery, Norwich (Dec 2018)
Rosso going Solo, The Art Space, Cass Art, Islington, London, (June 2018 - part of the Holly Bush Painter Prize 2017)
Artist of The Year 2018, Mall Galleries, London (Feb 2018)
AWE, Art Women and Evolution, The Bloosmbury, London (Feb 2018)
WIA women in art, Peggy Jay Gallery, Burgh House, Hampstead, London (2017)
Summer Show, Creative Debut, London (2017)
"The Londoner Compass", The Strand Gallery, London (2017)
"WITP", The Strand Gallery, London (2016)
"Tribe16", Chrom Art, The Ugly Duck, London (2016)
"It's Art Exhibition", D-Contemporary, Mayfair, London (2016)
"Debased", Cultivate collective, BSMT space, London (2016)
"The Human Figure: Myth and Storytelling", The Gallery, Stoke Newington, London (2016)
"Summer Salon", Islington Art Factory, London (2016)
"Emerald Life Winter Pride Art Awards", Islington Art Factory, London (2016)
"Hand Maid", S'A collective, Hoxton Arches Gallery, London(2016)
"Urban Art Experience", Nude Tin Can Gallery, St Albans (2016)
"Homunculus", Asylum, London (2016)
“ICADF 2015”, Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair, London (2015)
“Painting & Sculpture”, Candid Art Gallery, London (2015)
“Portraits”, Espacio gallery, London (2015)
“Outsider Art Exhibition”, Candid Art Gallery, London (2015)
“FLUX”, Gray’s Art Gallery, London (2015)
“Seams”, Sweat’Art Collective, Hoxton Arches Gallery, London (2015)
“Royal Art in the World – Italian and Foreign Contemporary Art”, ROA Royal Opera Arcade, London (2015)
“NOT the Royal Academy”, Llewellyn Alexander Gallery, London (2014)
“Artsdepot Open 2014”, Artsdepot, London (2014)