Emma McHold-Burke

Emma is a multi-disciplinary artist who earned their BFA in Painting and Minor in Art History from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. Emma now lives in Maine maintaining a studio practice and working in the arts community.

Their practice relies heavily on the idea that failure is a generative process instead of a reductive one. Short animations that Emma calls “movies”, paintings that have grown legs or are made without paint entirely, digital collages from google maps, and MS paint drawings turned cyanotypes serve as examples of the lack of hierarchy in their making. The work exists within structures that pay homage to the history of things like painting and, at the same time, are misused in an effort to challenge and break down its limits. Transparent materials, negative space, and indirect imagery accumulate into deliberately slow visuals that may only be able to be accessed if the viewer is able to extend patience and forgiveness to the work. Emma hopes that when this is accomplished that the work will act as a stand in for the viewer and that we will be able to extend that same grace to ourselves regardless of how difficult we may be.

Emma loves things that come in threes, rabbit skin glue, and lying! :)

IG: @em_mcburke

Email: emmamcburke@gmail.com