Too Much Not Enough. Emma Labattaglia

Too Much Not Enough is the first solo exhibition in Barcelona by Emma Labattaglia (Melbourne, Australia, 1980), presented at Escat Projects in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat from October 15 to November 13, 2026. Developed during her residency at Piramidón Centre d’Art Contemporani in Barcelona, the show brings together a new body of work exploring the tension between excess and absence, wanting more and wanting less, holding on and letting go.

Labattaglia’s practice is deeply rooted in memory, heritage and personal history. Her approach to painting is intuitive and process-driven, combining collaged canvas and oil with smaller artworks in oil and linen on hand-stitched canvas. Layers are built, rubbed back and covered again, creating surfaces where fragments, textures and previous gestures remain embedded within the piece.

In this new series, colour, shaped and repeated forms emerge through a different and instinctive process. Familiar elements return throughout the paintings, shifting between clarity and disappearance as layers are added and removed. The resulting surfaces reflect the artist’s interest in the relationship between what is revealed and what remains hidden.

There is a sense of searching throughout Too Much Not Enough: for balance, for connection, for something that may never fully settle. Rather than resolving this uncertainty, Labattaglia allows it to remain within the paintings, occupying the space between full and empty, presence and absence, too much and not enough.