Emily Mae Smith

Emily Mae Smith (born 1979) is a visual artist from Austin, Texas.[1]

Biography

Emily Mae Smith (born 1979) is a visual artist from Austin, Texas who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.[2] Smith typically creates narrative oil paintings. In Patricia Hickson’s text about Emily Mae Smith’s exhibition at the Wadsworth Atheneum, she writes, “With a nod to distinct painting movements in the history of art, such as Symbolism, Surrealism, and Pop art, Emily Mae Smith creates lively compositions that offer sly social and political commentary.”[3]

Education

Smith attended the University of Texas from 1997-2002, receiving a B.F.A. in Studio Art. Upon graduating in 2002, she was presented with the Roy Crane Award by the University of Texas. In 2005, Smith received the Edward Mazzella Jr. Scholarship from Columbia University. And in 2006, she received her M.F.A. in Visual Art from Columbia University. [4]

Selected Works

Symbolism of the broom

An anthropomorphized broom is a reoccurring symbol in Smith’s works. Patricia Hickson writes, “Leading with humor, she presents a vocabulary of signs and symbols that start with her avatar, inspired by the bewitched broomstick figure from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence in Disney’s animated film Fantasia (1940). This unlikely (…) choice is an astute one as the broom simultaneously alludes to a painter’s brush, a domestic tool associated with women’s work, and the phallus. Smith’s flexible character has continued to evolve across her body of work. By adopting a wide variety of guises, the broom and a stock pile of other coded symbols speak to timely, relevant subjects, including gender, sexuality, capitalism, and violence.”[5]

“Emily Mae Smith explains; ‘The broom-like figure, which has gone through a lot of permutations and changes, has the agency to move in painting and its histories because its image is bound up with our phallocentric myths of authenticity and creation.’” [6]

The Studio series

"The Studio series borrows its title and parts of its formal elements from the famed British magazine founded in 1893 and published until 1964, which established a link between Art Nouveau, Arts and Crafts, and Modernism. The paintings from this series also borrow compositional elements from the periodical, with the typeface from its title becoming part of the picture to totally discombobulate it by mimicking a magazine cover. Within the constraints of this self-imposed format, and even when she doesn’t use them, Smith unrolls a visual vocabulary made of stilettos, teeth, candles, eyeglasses, and a whole bunch of unexpected artifacts articulating little, esoteric fairy tales where the question of gender always lies beneath the surface…Most certainly her painting is intent on re-establishing all kind of dialogues and knows how to choose its partners in conversation––Smith herself quotes Ingres (“His figures and flesh are not human”) and leaves the door open to everything else (“I’m game for anything in the history of visual culture.”)” [7]

— Eric Troncy, Emily Mae Smith’s exhibition at Le Consortium(November 2018)

Exhibitions

Smith has had solo exhibitions at multiple institutions around the world, such as MATRIX 181, curated by Patricia Hickson at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut, 2019; Emily Mae Smith, curated by Eric Troncy at Le Consortium, Dijon, France, 2018; and The Little Apocrypha, with Adam Henry & Emily Mae Smith at SALTS art center, Birsfelden, Switzerland, 2017. She has also been featured in prominent art galleries including Perrotin, Tokyo (upcoming in September 2019); Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany; Simone Subal Gallery, New York; and Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium. She has participated in group shows in galleries including Perrotin, Peter Freeman, Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, Kohn Gallery, König, and Marlborough Fine Art. [8]

Art market

Smith has been represented by Galerie Perrotin since 2019.[9]

Recognition

2018

New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Painting

2005

Edward Mazella Jr. Scholarship, Columbia University

2002

Roy Crane Award, University of Texas

1999-2001

University of Texas Department of Art Merit Awards

[10]

References
  1. "Artists--Emily Mae Smith--Simone Subal Gallery". www.simonesubal.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  2. "Artists--Emily Mae Smith--Simone Subal Gallery". www.simonesubal.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  3. Hickson, Patricia (March 2019). "Emily Mae Smith--Matrix181--Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of art Hartford, CT" (PDF) (Press release). Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  4. "Emily Mae Smith Biography -- Emily Mae Smith on Artnet". www.artnet.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  5. Hickson, Patricia (March 2019). "Emily Mae Smith--Matrix181--Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of art Hartford, CT" (PDF) (Press release). Hartford, Connecticut: Wadsworth Atheneum. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  6. Troncy, Eric (Winter 2018). "Consortium Museum--Emily Mae Smith" (Press release). Dijon, France: Le Consortium. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  7. Troncy, Eric (Winter 2018). "Consortium Museum--Emily Mae Smith" (Press release). Dijon, France: Le Consortium. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  8. "CV - Emily Mae Smith". www.emilymaesmtih.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
  9. Margaret Carrigan (August 26, 2019), Perrotin picks up four new artists post-KAWS The Art Newspaper
  10. "CV - Emily Mae Smith". www.emilymaesmtih.com. Retrieved May 29, 2019.
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