Emma Fineman’s work is born from a space of questioning, of curiosity, of queerness. She is interested in the ways stories shape us; be they stories told by religion, or mythology, or cosmology, or politics. With acute attention to materiality and gesture, her work interrogates what it is to live in a queer body in today’s world, one that exists in the slippages between the normative delineations of gender and sexuality. One raised in the wake of a religion founded on the subjugation of women. One who senses that there is magic to be found in the ineffable.
In her practice, Fineman revisits narratives culled from art historical allegories, Jewish folklore, and contemporary media to draw out hidden truths—unearth them in their totality, re-cast them, and highlight the threads that might have been overshadowed or relegated. Where things like yearning, grief, and prospect are all present. Whether through painting, drawing, monoprint, or cast bronze sculpture, the roots of her multifaceted practice sprout from the cracks between representation and abstraction. Repeated signs, symbols, and ghost-like figures all point to a world sitting just beneath the surface of our perceived "reality."
Beyond these figures, a hot, wild, potent force rumbles from the gloaming. Fineman’s works require us to question belief, how it is held, and the power of its conviction. As she interrogates what freedom means to her, she creates spaces for us all to be curious about how we want to live, how we want to identify, and how we embody space. In doing so, Fineman’s work celebrates a kind of freedom, one that can be found when the ecosystem of the world is truly acknowledged.
“I am curious about the hints of dust that coat the surface of things, quick to take flight when rustled, that they might fill a lung, corrupt its function, and perhaps inform the body which imbibed it.”
(b. 1991, Berkeley, California) Fineman lives and works in London, UK. In 2018 she graduated with distinction as an MA In Painting from Royal College of Art, London, and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BFA in Painting from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2013. Solo exhibitions include: 'Encounters', Huxley-Parlour; London, UK (2022) ‘REALMS OF THE [UN]REAL’, PUBLIC Gallery; London, UK (2019) Selected group exhibitions include ‘John Moores Painting Prize Exhibition’, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2018); ‘Bloomberg New Contemporaries’. South London Gallery, London, UK (2018); ‘SURGE’, East Wing Biennial 13, Courtauld Institute, London, UK (2018); Sholto Blissett, Emma Fineman, Madeline Peckenpaugh; Alexander Berggruen Gallery; New York City, NY, US (2021) Liminal Spaces; Galerie Isa; Mumbai, India (2022) Birdsong; Timothy Taylor; London, UK (2023), Dreaming of Eden; Timothy Taylor; New York City, NY, US (2023), and Across The Pond: Contemporary Painting in London; Eric Firestone Gallery; New York City, NY, US(2024)
Fineman’s works have been selected for several prestigious awards including the Presidential Fellowship Grant; Anderson Ranch Arts Center; Aspen, CO (2013), as well as the Harley Open Judges Prize; Welbeck Estates, Harley Museum and Foundation; Nottingham, UK (2017), the London Bronze Editions Prize; London Bronze Casting; London, UK (2020), New American Paintings Pacific Coast Competition (2020), and as a finalist for the Hopper Prize (2021). She has been granted residencies at the Vermont Studio Center; Johnson, VT (2013), Anderson Ranch Arts Center Residency Workshop; Snowmass, CO (2013) Palazzo Monti Residency; Brescia, Italy (2019), and The Porthmeor Studios, St Ives, U.K (2020 and 2024) among others. Fineman has been included in publications such as Juxtapoz, Medium, Artforum, Hyperallergic, ArtMaze, and New American Paintings.
Collections include The Cowen Collection, London UK; Hogan Lovells, London UK; Start Museum, Beijing CH; Martin Nielsen Collection, Aalborg DK; White Space, Mordes Collection, West Palm Beach USA
