Emilia Lemaire
Emilia Lemaire (born 1997 in Detmold, Germany) is a painter. She lives and works in Detmold.
After training in design and photography, she taught herself oil painting from 2021 onwards, studying the techniques of the Old Masters. Since 2025 she has concentrated on a single series, Je, Tu, Il, Elle. Her work was first exhibited in Detmold in 2026.
Je, Tu, Il, Elle since 2025
Her paintings are about people and relationships – not as a record of facts, but as what arises between reality and imagination: idea, memory, desire, dream.
The titles of the series are French personal pronouns: Je, Tu, Il, Elle – I, you, he, she. Je is the artist herself, as she is and as she would like to be. Tu, Il and Elle may be real or imagined; the same figure can reappear over time under a different name.
She grinds her own paints from pigments and linseed oil and finishes each painting with fine layers of salt. Up close the images blur; from a distance they come back into focus – much as memory and closeness shift in the act of looking.
The works invite quiet, attentive looking and leave room for viewers to find their own connections.
CV
Education
2019–2021 Media design (digital & print), Theodor-Schäfer-Berufsbildungswerk, Husum
2017–2018 Design (print & web), bib International College, Paderborn — photography with Klaus-Peter Semmler
Since 2021 Self-taught studies in oil painting: making paint from pigments, own painting medium, techniques of the Old Masters
Exhibitions (selected, self-organised)
2026 Own works, series Je, Tu, Il, Elle, Galerie Emilia Lemaire, Detmold (16 Jan – 30 Apr)
2026 Group exhibition, Detmolder Design Woche, Galerie Emilia Lemaire, Detmold — with Christine Brand and Ingrid Sawadsky (2–9 May)
Collections
Private collection, Germany
Press (selected)
2026 Thomas Krügler, “Design zwischen ‘Weniger’ und Vielfalt”, Lippische Landes-Zeitung, 4 May 2026, p. 12
Memberships
Since 2026 Ressource Detmold