As the winter chill recedes, spring emerges with a gentle promise of renewal. It is a season of reawakening as vivid colour returns, forms soften, and the familiar is made new again. Such joyful transformation is the focus of Emily Filler’s exhibition Deconstructed Bouquets, which opens May 2 at Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art.
Flowers have been a profound source of inspiration in the art world, transcending time, culture, and artistic mediums. Whether embedded within the intricate patterns of medieval manuscripts or boldly reimagined in modern installations, floral imagery has served as a universal language of beauty, emotion, and meaning.
Working in what she describes as “painterly collages,” Filler merges painting, printmaking, and photography into layered compositions that feel at once tactile, meticulously composed, and atmospheric. Her process incorporates fragments of old photographs, textiles, and silkscreened elements, which are carefully assembled into arrangements that blur the boundary between the real and the imagined. Rather than depicting flowers as fixed objects, her works capture their essence: the fleeting impressions they leave behind, the way they are remembered rather than seen.
In Deconstructed Bouquets, this approach takes on a renewed clarity. The exhibition reflects a shift toward simplification, as Filler pares back some of the density that has characterized her earlier work. These compositions introduce a sense of openness, allowing colour and form to resonate with greater immediacy.
The origins of this shift lie within the rhythms of everyday observation. During long walks through residential neighbourhoods, Filler became attuned to moments of unexpected vibrancy. A bright orange pylon on concrete, a yellow watering can set against a grey backdrop, and a child’s blue tricycle resting quietly on a lawn become works of art unto themselves. These flashes of colour within otherwise subdued environments informed her evolving visual language, prompting her to consider how simple forms might activate space.
Circles, in particular, emerge as a recurring motif, an influence drawn in part from Sterling Ruby. At once playful and deliberate, these shapes punctuate her compositions, introducing a sense of rhythm and movement that offsets the calm of the surrounding fields. They also reinforce the underlying logic of collage, where disparate elements are brought into relation, generating new meanings through juxtaposition.
Yet Filler’s collage art extends beyond material assembly. Her works function as accumulations of thought and experience, drawing from an expansive personal archive of images spanning art, fashion, and everyday life. In this sense, each piece operates as a kind of visual diary, an arrangement shaped not only by formal decisions but also by the contingencies of a particular moment: what was seen, what was felt, and what lingered in memory.
Like spring itself, Filler’s exhibition is less about arrival than about unfolding and rediscovery. What emerges is artwork that embraces both structure and spontaneity. By loosening the expectations tied to earlier work, Filler opens the door to new forms and possibilities. Her work invites viewers into spaces where perception shifts, colour reasserts itself, and the act of looking becomes an experience in joy and quiet wonder.
Learn more at newzones.com.
