Emii Alrai's work spans material investigation in relation to memory, critique of the western museological structure and the complexity of ruins. Working primarily in sculpture and installation, her work operates as large-scale realms built in relation to bodies of research which concern archaeology and the natural environments objects are excavated from. Her practice weaves in oral histories, inherited nostalgia and the details of language to question the rigidity of Empire and the power of hierarchy to interpolate the static presence of history. The installations physically weave together hand built clay vessels which are patinated to look like ancient artefacts, steel braces and polystyrene hewn into amorphous landscapes.
Emii Alrai (b.1993, Blackpool, UK) lives and works in Leeds, UK. Alrai received her MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies, Distinction, University of Leeds in 2018 and her BA Fine Art (International), First Class Honours, University of Leeds in 2015.
Recent solo exhibitions include Capture, Towner Eastbourne, UK (2025); River of Black Stone, Compton Verney, Warwickshire, UK (2025); A Lake as Great as its Bones, Maximillian William, London, UK (2024); Lithics, Quench Gallery, Margate, UK (2024); A Core of Scar, The Hepworth Wakefield & iniva, Wakefield, and London, UK (2022); Reverse Defence, Workplace Foundation, Newcastle, UK (2022). Previous group exhibitions include Fragment & Form, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK (2025); Déjà Vu, Bold Tendencies, London, UK (2025), Ceramics Friends: 5th Virginia McClure Ceramic Biennale, McClure Gallery, Montréal, Canada (2024); A Permanent Departure for Nostalgia, A Rehearsal on Legacy with Zaha Hadid, Contemporary Arts Centre, Cincinnati, USA (2023); And the Mirrors are Many, Warehouse 421, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (2022).
Alrai was the recipient of the Assetto Fellowship at the Warburg Institute in 2025, Knotenpunkt Artist Award, Hamburg, Germany in 2024, GOG Galleries of Ontario Award, Exhibition of the Year for Sutures and shortlisted for the Frieze Artwork Award in 2023, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award in 2020. She was artist-in-residence at Wysing Arts Centre, UK in 2024 and she has undertaken residencies at the Villa Medici, Rome, Italy, Launchpad LaB, France in 2023; and Triangle Astérides, Marseille, France in 2021.
