Emily Grace Harrison

Emily Grace Harrison is a contemporary visual artist whose exuberant paintings, drawings and sculptures move between landscape, folklore, symbolism and imagination. Born on Vancouver Island, Emily spent time on Hornby as a child visiting her father, the late artist Phil Harrison, and today lives and works on the island herself.

Emily studied Urban Geography and Global Studies at Vancouver Island University before earning a BFA in Drawing and Painting from OCAD University in Toronto. Her work has since been exhibited across Canada and internationally, and she has undertaken artist residencies in Toronto, Victoria and South Korea, including an international residency with the Daegu Foundation for Culture.

Her practice extends well beyond conventional painting. Emily works across painting, drawing, sculpture, assemblage, installation and public art, often bringing a playful and experimental sensibility to her work. On Hornby, that has included creating a giant mermaid in the sand and mowing a labyrinth into the landscape. Her 2025 solo exhibition, Labyrinth Keeper, at 13 Cedars in New Brunswick reflects this continuing interest in landscape, pathways, imagination and place.

Emily has also become involved in Hornby’s artistic community as a curator. In 2024 she curated Spent Seeds Return to Flower for Hornby Arts, bringing together the work of seven Hornby women artists. That same year she curated Dreamscapes: Phil Harrison, an exhibition of her father’s work presented at Hornby Hall and later at The Old School House Arts Centre in Qualicum Beach.

Although her connection to Hornby reaches back through her father and her childhood visits, Emily has developed a distinctly contemporary practice of her own.  It’s colourful, curious and experimental, and increasingly part of the island’s evolving artistic landscape.