Emily Mae Smith’s paintings are known for their lively and humorous compositions that reference art historical movements such as Symbolism, Surrealism, and Pop Art. Her work often addresses contemporary themes including gender, sexuality, capitalism, and violence.
Smith’s art features a distinctive lexicon of signs and symbols, notably her anthropomorphic broomstick figure. This figure serves as a multifaceted avatar, simultaneously referencing the painter’s brush, a domestic tool associated with women’s work, and the phallus. Through this and other imagery, Smith critiques art history’s phallocentric myths and creates space for subjectivities absent in visual culture, specifically from a feminist perspective.
Smith was born in 1979 in Austin, Texas, and is based in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas and an MFA in Visual Art from Columbia University. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Magritte Museum in Brussels (2024), Petzel Gallery in New York (2022), and Galerie Perrotin in Paris (2021). Smith’s paintings are also part of several public collections, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
