If you’ve been craving contemporary work that feels alive—art that doesn’t just reference nature and the cosmos, but seems to think alongside them—Miranda Moll should be on your radar. Based in Calgary, Moll is part of a rare breed: an artist whose visual language is fueled by scientific training, emotional candour, and a deep curiosity about what it means to be a living thing on a changing planet.
And yes—I’m going to say it plainly, as an opinion rooted in what her work is already demonstrating: Miranda Moll is Canada’s top new emerging contemporary artist right now, not because “top” is an award you can measure with a ruler, but because her work is doing what the best emerging artists do: it expands the viewer’s sense of wonder while staying grounded in lived reality.
A Calgary-based artist with a scientist’s eye—and a poet’s nerve
Moll’s trajectory is compelling before you even reach the canvas. In an interview with Visual Art Journal, she describes living in Calgary and working in painting and drawing, while also holding advanced training in the sciences—an Honours BSc in Biology, an MSc focused on biodiversity, wildlife, and ecosystem health, and ongoing doctoral studies spanning geoscience and biological sciences.
That hybrid identity isn’t a side note; it’s the engine of her practice. On her artist statement, Moll is described as painting “at the meeting place of science and wonder,” tracing connections from “the trembling edges of a cell” to “the vast architecture of the cosmos.” That framing lands because the work doesn’t treat science like a visual gimmick—it treats it like a way of perceiving, and then pushes beyond it into something intuitive and emotional.
Three words that capture the work: contemplative, existential, in motion
When asked to describe her art in three words, Moll chooses: “Contemplative. Existence. Movement.” It’s a deceptively simple self-definition, and it’s also an accurate guide for how to experience her paintings: slowly, personally, and with openness to ambiguity.
Her compositions often feel like a threshold—between micro and macro, between biology and dreamscape, between dread and devotion. She’s not interested in “nature” as décor. She’s interested in the lived strangeness of being a conscious creature in a world full of other consciousnesses (or at least other kinds of experience).
Where emotion meets scientific motif—without feeling forced
One of the most distinctive threads in Moll’s work is the way it merges emotional intensity with scientific sensibility. In her Visual Art Journal interview, she speaks candidly about being “deeply emotional” and guided by an “emotional compass”—and about how the blending of science and feeling happens “organically and deeply” for her.
That matters because plenty of contemporary art talks about interdisciplinarity. Moll’s work actually embodies it. The paintings don’t read like illustrations of scientific concepts; they read like inner landscapes shaped by the kinds of questions science can trigger: How connected are we? Where does “self” end and “environment” begin? What counts as consciousness?
The motif of the eye: seeing, being seen, and the vulnerability of awareness
If you notice eyes appearing in Moll’s work, you’re not imagining a pattern. She’s direct about that motif: for her, eyes represent “seeing and being seen,” sometimes even the desire to be understood. Visual Art Journal
But what makes this motif powerful is how it operates on multiple registers at once. Eyes can feel intimate, confrontational, protective, exposed. In the context of her broader themes—existence, ecology, the boundaries of consciousness—the eye becomes a symbol of awareness itself: the miracle (and burden) of perception.
Colour as atmosphere: aquatic depths, cosmic heat, and a disciplined palette
Moll’s palette is striking—often moving between deep oceanic blues and luminous, cosmic tones. In her own words, she builds vibrancy through a limited set of transparent colours, working with two versions of each primary and trying to avoid mixing all three into muddy browns. She’s also deliberate with white, using it carefully because of how dramatically it can change texture and depth.
One detail that makes her rise especially exciting: she notes that she has only been oil painting seriously since 2024. That’s not a limitation—it’s a signal flare. When an artist achieves this level of control, atmosphere, and confidence early in a medium, the runway ahead is long.
Process as patience: building work over months, returning, re-seeing
Moll doesn’t describe a single rigid starting point. Sometimes she begins with colour or pattern; other times with a subject, or even a title that becomes a narrative anchor. What stands out most is her insistence on not throwing paintings away—if something isn’t working, she sets it aside and returns when ready.
That philosophy fits the emotional tone of her work: it feels lived with, not rushed. She mentions that she often works on paintings for months, sometimes over a year, allowing time for thought and feeling to accumulate. For viewers, that translates into pieces that seem to carry their own weather systems—works you can revisit and keep finding new readings in.
Art as activism—without the lecture
Moll also articulates a nuanced relationship to activism and science communication. She’s volunteered in science communication and environmental activism, and she’s clear-eyed about a hard truth: facts alone often fail to move people, especially when beliefs and identity get involved.
Her answer is not to abandon the message, but to shift the delivery. She calls visual art “silent,” emphasizing that it invites contemplation rather than confrontation—an internal experience that can bypass defensiveness. In that sense, her work becomes a kind of emotional access point into ecological grief, awe, and accountability.
And it’s deeply personal. She speaks about climate anxiety and the sadness of watching ecosystems degrade, contrasting childhood experiences of “pure magic” in wild places with the reality of human carelessness and destruction. The work that emerges from this isn’t propaganda—it’s the expression of someone who can’t unsee what she knows.
Why I’m comfortable calling her Canada’s top new emerging contemporary artist
“Top” is subjective. But if you define “top emerging artist” as someone who is rapidly developing a distinctive voice, producing work with conceptual depth and aesthetic pull, and building a practice that can sustain long-term relevance—Moll checks those boxes.
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A singular intersection of disciplines: not science-as-theme, but science-as-perception.
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A consistent symbolic language (eyes, life, cosmos): motifs that evolve rather than repeat.
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An emotional register that feels contemporary: climate anxiety, wonder, grief, intimacy—held in the same frame.
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A practice built on time and return: the kind of patience that usually produces lasting bodies of work.
That combination is rare anywhere. Seeing it emerge from Calgary—rooted in Canadian landscapes and ecological realities, but speaking to universal questions of existence—feels like the start of something major. Visual Art Journal+1
What’s next—and how to follow her work
For collectors, she also notes print availability through Slate & Loom Canada, alongside other upcoming sales plans. Miranda Moll Art
If you’re building a contemporary Canadian art shortlist—whether as a curator, collector, or simply someone who wants to live with work that sparks real reflection—Miranda Moll is a name worth learning now, while “emerging” still applies.
To learn more, visit Miranda’s website at:
Miranda Moll | Contemporary Artist
https://www.mirandamollart.com/
Calgary (Downtown) – Alberta, Canada
