paintings

sam schembri

“the swan”, 4x5 feet, acrylic on canvas, 2019. A nude figure in a harness next to a swan before a blue, purple, and red background.

“Narcisuss”, 4.5 foot diameter oil painting on canvas, 2021. A figure with beige skin, brown hair, looks at their reflection in the pond. There is a pastoral scene behind them, and the painting is circular.

“relic”, 2x3 feet, acrylic and pastel on canvas, 2020. A sculptural bust on a stand, with two faces - one resembling a Greek masculine mythic figure next to a femme mask. They wear a black x harness, with one side of the body resembling a masculine chest and the other a feminine.

about the creator

Person with piercings, a chain, long brown hair and bangs, holding a pink screen-printed eyeball over her left eye. In the background is a screen-print of a pink and blue angel, and multiple drag queen eyes printed in CMYK.

I am Sam Schembri, a queer artist from Edmonton, Alberta and an alum of Emily Carr University of Art & Design. I completed my degree in May 2020 and have worked as a Preparator for the Art Gallery of Alberta. I studied painting, printmaking, photography, collage, and gender studies throughout my degree. My involvement in the queer community inspires my research in gender studies, mythology, and euhemerism. I express modern sexuality, gender, and identity through reworking myths to expose homosexuality embodied in classical histories. All media explorations are informed by the previous, bringing sculptural aspects into my paintings, drawings into photography, painting onto printing, abstraction into figuration, and bridging the gaps between different artistic realms.

My 2020 show of "Iconic” re-envisioned myths and included screen-printed mirrors from halftones made from my photographs of queer friends posing as Greek gods/goddesses in drag. "Iconic" was meant to be its own space of worship, incorporating personal elements of fetishism in object-hood alongside iconic centerpieces to utilize the ritualistic behaviors of museums, domestic spaces, personal collections, queer expression, and narcissism.