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.
— LVB

Recent solo exhibitions include: CFA, Berlin, Germany, The Pond Society, Shanghai, China; SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA USA; Marion Art Gallery, Panama City, USA; Rockefeller Arts Center, New York, NY USA; SUNY Fredonia, New York, NY USA; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT USA; Le Consortium Museum, Dijon, France; SALTS (with Adam Henry), Basel, Switzerland.

Select group exhibitions include: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., WA USA; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, LA USA; 58th October Salon, Belgrade Biennale, Belgrade, Serbia; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH USA; Arsenal Contemporary, New York, NY USA; Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH USA; Public Art Fund, New York, NY USA.

Smith’s work is included in collections such as Arsenal Contemporary, Montreal, Canada; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, ATX USA; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY USA; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH USA; The Consortium Museum, Dijon, France; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX USA; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., WA USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, LA USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, LA USA; Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany; Powerlong Art Museum, Shanghai, China; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY USA; Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga, Latvia.