Emilia Kina’s paintings combine erudition and aesthetic appeal. She is primarily interested in the materiality of the image, a simple form arising from complex problems, where the essence lies in the relations between painting as an image and painting as an object.
Recalling screens, curtains and blinds, which like a room divider conceal the view, her works play by intertwining various sensory and interpretive layers. At first they unfold the aesthetic level,
dominating over the linguistic or analytical meaning; as the viewer observes the subjects they are rendered delicate, soft, linear, pleasant, even sensual by the colours and materials used. The artist consistently pursues the curtain motif in a clear reference to Leon Alberti’s renaissance concept of painting as a window to the world. She is fascinated by trompe-l’œil and she plays with the idea of visible and hidden which twist our perceptions of what is real or not real, and what is seen or not seen.