maxwell mcmaster emily mae smith

46 Maxwell -McMaster

Maxwell McMaster is a Los Angeles based multidisciplinary artist/designer. His work is primarily a reaction to his surrounding environment, or a reflection of past experiences. Maxwell explores a wide range of styles and techniques within his work, allowing the concepts to dictate the aesthetic.

47 Emily Mae -Smith

Born in 1979 in Austin, Texas, USA Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, USA

Emily Mae Smith creates lively compositions that

offer sly social and political commentary, with a nod to distinct historical painting movements, such as symbolism, surrealism, and pop art. Her lexicon

Above: Fiction Flesh, Oil on linen,47” x 58”, 2018, Courtesy the artist and Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin of signs and symbols begins with her avatar, an anthropomorphic broomstick figure. Simultaneously referencing the painter’s brush, a domestic tool associated with women’s work, and the phallus, the figure continually transforms across Smith’s body of work. By adopting a variety of guises, the broom and other symbols speak to contemporary subjects, including gender, sexuality, capitalism, and violence. Smith has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Le Consortium, Dijon, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut.

EM ILY MA E SM ITH

Symbolism of the broom[edit] 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 Fan- tasia (1940). This unlikely (…) choice is an astute one as the broom simultane- ously alludes to a painter’s brush, a domestic tool asso- ciated with women’s work, and the phallus. Smith’s flexible character has con- tinued 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.’ Exhibitions[edit] Smith has had solo exhibitions at multiple institutions around the world, such as MATRIX 181, curated by Patricia Hickson at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, porary 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. hum or in tryingto m akeinvisible things visible. The m outh startedas a frame,and I thought At what pointdid you start sharpening your visuallanguage? have to use m ineralspiritsand so 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 on, and I really thatif I put what I have to say insideofthis,like, cartoonish, m an-splainykindofmouth,attention w ould bepaid.It w as a joke,likeif I w ear a Duringthe recessionhere in New York,roughly 2008and 2013, it w as really hard,and I had to go from one w eird jobto another, workingforartists, m akesmall paintings w ithw atercolor, acrylic, things thatw ere w ater-based.M yw ork becam e m ore sim ple and m ore hard-edged becauseof SALTS art center, Birsfelden, Switzerland, 2017. She has also been featured in prominent art galleries including Perrotin, Tokyo (upcoming in September 2019); Contemm ustache, you'll think I have som ethingm ore orworkingforgalleries. I drew illustrations for a im portantto say.It's crueltoo It's like a cruel children's cookbook all these random things just