Tag: emily mae smith

Emily Mae Smith at Petzel Gallery

Inspired by the manically busy brooms in Disney’s Fantasia, Emily Mae Smith’s recurring broom character is set apart – an individual posing with tense self-assurance in several of the artist’s new works now on view at Petzel Gallery.  Initially, Smith saw the brooms as representative of unrecognized female labor; separated from the pack, they become lone underdogs constructed from the discards of wheat production but forming identities of their own. This figure is host to two mice on her legs and birds and a squirrel on her head, offering sanctuary and even enduring abuse as part of her relationship to nature.  (On view through Nov 12th).

Emily Mae Smith, Habitat, oil on linen, 2022.

Emily Mae Smith at Simone Subal Gallery

Emily Mae Smith’s subversive broom-bodied character appears in close-up with a view of mice, wheat and a polluted environment reflected in her eyes in this highlight of the artist’s current show at Simone Subal Gallery.  Derived from Disney’s Fantasia, the broom appears poised to clean up the landscape she surveys, perhaps in aid of the mice and wheat, species who’ve been on the planet a long time.  Her crown of hair, composed of gingko leaves, points to the trees’ role in removing huge amounts of CO2 from urban environments.  (On view on the Lower East Side.  Masks and social distancing are required and appointments recommended.)

Emily Mae Smith, Head, Horizon World, oil on linen, 67 x 90 inches, 2020.

Emily Mae Smith in ‘Second Smile’ at theholenyc.com

Installed in late April though the show will likely never be seen in person by the public, The Hole NYC’s exhibition ‘Second Smile’ asks how Surrealism continues to surface in contemporary painting.  The show includes work by Emily Mae Smith, whose painting of two candles in a clandestine nighttime meeting was a memorable part of her show at Simone Subal Gallery in 2017.  (On view at The Hole NYC through May 24th).

Emily Mae Smith, The Caress, oil on linen, 48 x 38 inches, 2017.

Emily Mae Smith at Simone Subal Gallery

Emily Mae Smith’s huge sea creature is a monumental iceberg waiting to surprise mariners drawn in by the tiny sirens – fantasia brooms morphed into mermaids – atop her head. Both the visible femmes fatale and the lurking, pouty-lipped presence suggest visible and hidden forces to be reckoned with. (On view at Simone Subal Gallery on the Lower East Side through Oct 29th).

Emily Mae Smith, Bathers, oil on linen, 51 x 67 inches, 2017.