Biography
Swedish born Emil Tibell left Stockholm in 2002 to deepen the topography of his creative endeavors with a BA degree in Illustration at Parsons New School for Design. Outside the classroom, he roamed the streets of New York City, looking for insight and urban refuse: corroded nails and driftwood from nameless blocks and oceans. Such makeshift supplies still allow Emil to bare the kernel of his creativity: a raw, yet sophisticated, semi-putrefying urge to convey organic meaning extracted from the inner sanctum of the mind.
From the paltry to the divine, through occult magick rites and pagan mysticism, Emil’s inspirational journeys are both incessant and unpredictable. Compelled by the intricacy of human cognition, he creates art in an attempt to bridge the gap between the lower and the higher consciousness.
Emil’s visual discourse dabbles in the tradition of memento mori, the visual reminder of the transience of life on this earth, found in the recurring symbols of mortality and ephemeral corporal existence. Fed by occurrences in his personal life, he also seeks to portray the grueling human struggle with malice, addiction, loss and love.
Together with his passion for anomic art, spiritual travel, and the dark refinement of heavy music, Emil is currently based as a freelance illustrator in Harlem, New York.