Emily Mae Smith
Emily Mae Smith makes lively and humorous paintings that are full of allusions to art historical movements like Symbolism, Surrealism and Pop-art. Underneath this visual wit, Smith addresses timely and relevant topics like gender, sexuality, capitalism and violence, thereby making her paintings multi-layered. One of the recurring characters in her work is a broomstick figure that she started using because it allows her to paint a domestic tool associated with women’s labour, a painter’s brush and a phallus symbol at the same time. This figure continuously evolves throughout her oeuvre and takes on a broad variety of forms and guises.
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BIOGRAPHY
Born 1979 in Austin, TX USA
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY USA
Education
2006
M.F.A. Visual Art, Columbia University, New York, NY USA
2002
B.F.A. Studio Art, University of Texas at Austin, TX USA
Solo and Two Person Exhibitions
2022
Heretic Lace, Petzel, New York, NY USA
2021
Harvesters, Perrotin, Paris, France
Speculative Objects, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
2020
Kin, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY USA
Feast and Famine, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA USA
EX LIBRIS, Rockefeller Arts Center, State University of New York at Fredonia, Fredonia, NY USA
2019
Avalon, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
MATRIX 181, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT USA
2018
Le Consortium, Dijon, France
A Strange Relative, Genesis Belanger & Emily Mae Smith, Perrotin New York, New York, NY USA
Feast of Totems, Contemporary Fine Arts Berlin, Berlin, Germany
A Name Unfamiliar, Underlined in Red, Henry+Smith, curated by Ugo Rondinone, 39 Great Jones, New York, NY USA
2017
The Sphinx or The Caress, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY USA
The Little Apocrypha, collaboration Emily Mae Smith & Adam Henry, curated by Samuel Leuenberger and Elise Lammer, SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland
2016
Tesla Girls, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Honest Espionage, Mary Mary, Glasgow, United Kingdom
2015
Medusa, Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY USA
2014
Novelty Court, Junior Projects, New York, NY USA
Group Exhibitions
2022
Finger Bang, Co-curated by Genesis Belanger and GaHee Park, Perrotin, Paris, France
Sausage Party, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Out of Body, Out of Mind, The Warehouse, Dallas, TX USA
Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. USA
Artists Inspired by Music: Interscope Reimagined, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA USA
2021
Speaking Tree, Candice Madey, New York, NY USA
La Bohème, curated by Eric Troncy, Alfonso Artiaco, Naples, Italy
Present Generations: Creating the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH USA
Figure 9, curated by Ryan Travis Christian, Western Exhibitions, Chicago, IL USA
Someone said that the world’s a stage, GRIMM, New York, NY USA
The Dreamers, 58th October Salon I Belgrade Biennale, Belgrde, Serbia
Bitter Nest, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
Alphabetic Image, Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY USA
Works on paper, rodolphe janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Neue Sachlichkeit, CFA, Berlin, Germany
Nature Morte, The Hole, New York, NY USA
Works on Paper, Jorge Pardo, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, Emily Mae Smith, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY USA
2020
ABSTRACTION: between Representation and Non-Representation, Jason Haam, Seoul, South Korea
TITLE TBD, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH USA
Myselves, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA
A Love Letter to a Nightmare, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY USA
Art on the Grid, Public Art Fund, New York, NY USA
All of Them Witches, organized by Dan Nadel and Laurie Simmons, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA USA
2019
Dark Laughter, Pippy Houldsworth, London, UK
Personal Private Public, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY USA
The Smiths, Marlborough, London, UK
HOME/WORK, JDJ The Icehouse, Garrison, NY USA
Throwback Jack, Fredericks & Freiser, New York, NY US
Alternate Realities, Arsenal Contemporary, Montreal, Canada
The Magnetic Fields, Gió Marconi, Milan, Italy
No Patience for Monuments, Perrotin, Seoul, South Korea
2018
Summer, curated by Ugo Rondinone, Peter Freeman Inc. New York, NY USA
Pine Barrens, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, NY USA
Six Artists, Harper’s Books, East Hampton, NY USA
The Sun is Gone But We Have the Light, Unclebrother, Hancock, NY USA
Dancing Goddesses, Curated by Marina Vranopoulou, Dio Horia, Mykonos, Greece
Texas, curated by Matthew Brown, Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA
Buddy System, Deanna Evans Projects, Brooklyn, NY USA
Herding Cats, Again, Catbox Contemporary, Ridgewood, NY USA
Tell Him What We Said About Paint It Black, curated by Andy Mister, 1 Mile Gallery, Kingston, NY USA
The Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band Part 2, Rob Tufnell, London, UK
The Cruellest Month, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY USA
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation, curated by Margot Samel, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn, Estonia
Harper’s Books at the Beverly Hills Hotel Sunset Suite, The Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA USA
2017
Engender, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA USA
Pharmacy for Idiots, Rob Tufnell, Cologne, Germany
Eyes, Nose, Lips, etc etc, Left Field gallery, San Luis Obispo, CA USA
Her Eyes Are Like Doves Beside Streams of Water, Adams and Ollman, Portand, OR USA
Sharper Image, Present Company, Brooklyn, NY USA
LE QUATRIÈME SEXE, Indéfinition des genres, réaffirmation des plaisirs, Le Coeur, Paris, France
Kidnapped, eine Wohnungsausstellung (a residential exhibition), virtual exhibition, Petrus Entertainment
2016
Scarlet Street, Lucien Terras, New York, NY USA
Me, Myself, I, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, CA USA
Surrreal, Johan König Galerie, Berlin, Germany
What's Up, curated by Lawrence van Hagen, Soho Revue, London, United Kingdom
Untitled Body Parts, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY USA
Rock’n’Roll Nightmare, curated by Olivia Drusin, 41 Cooper Square Gallery, New York, NY USA
2015
Unrealism, co-organized by Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian, The Moore Building, Miami, FL USA
Mrs. Benway, Fourteen30, Portland, OR USA
I Dropped the Lemon Tart, Lisa Cooley, New York, NY USA
Six Advertisements, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY USA
Comic Relief, Levy.Delval, Brussels, Belgium
Oh, Of Course, You Were Berry Picking, co-organized by Rosa Tyhurst, DREI, Cologne, Germany
Six possibilities in painting (int.), curated by Fabian Schöneich and Sam uel Leuenberger, Galerie Bernhard, Zurich, Switzerland
2014
Help is on the Way, organized by Sean Landers, Wasserman Projects, Birmingham, MI USA
Parallax Futured: Transtemporal Subjectivities, Skirball Museum, Cincin nati, OH USA
2013
Page 179, Artforum, September 2013, Brennan & Griffin, New York, NY USA
2012
Knowledge of the True Games, Know More Games, Brooklyn, NY USA
2011
Neon Sigh, collaboration with Adam Henry, The Arcade, Nashville, TN USA
2010
Portugal Arte 10- Portuguese Biennial, Personal Freedom, Lisbon, Por tugal
2009
On From Here, Guild and Greyshkul, New York, NY USA
2007
Love in a Cold Climate, curated by Sima Familant and Lisa Schiff, Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, MA USA
The Cement Garden, Marvelli Gallery, New York, NY USA
2006
Summer Salon, curated by Kate Werble, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, NY USA
2005
The Love Below, Marvelli Gallery. New York, NY USA
Collections
Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. USA
The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA
MOCA, Los Angeles, CA USA
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH USA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX, USA
Powerlong Art Museum, Shanghai, China
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, USA
The Consortium Museum, Dijon, France
Arsenal Contemporary, Montreal, Canada
Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga, Latvia