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.
Born 1979 in Austin, USA
Lives and works in Brooklyn, USA
Selected solo exhibitions
2024
Emily Mae Smith & René Magritte, Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Belgium
2023
A Candle Makes its Own Fuel, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany
Emily Mae Smith, Pond Society, Shanghai, China
2022
Heretic Lace, Petzel, New York, USA
2021
Harvesters, Perrotin, Paris, France
2020
Speculative Objects, Rodolphe Janssen. Brussels, Belgium
Feast and Famine, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, GA
Kin, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY
Rockefeller Arts Center, Fredonia, NY
2019
Avalon curated by Eric Troncy, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
MARTRIX 181, The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford/Connecticut, USA
2018
Le Consortium, Dijon, France
Feast of Totems, Contemporary Fine Arts Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2017
The Sphinx or the Caress, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, USA
The Little Apocrypha, collaboration Emily Mae Smith & Adam Henry, curated by Samuel Leuenberger and Elise Lammer, SALTS, Birsfelden, Switzerland
2016
Tesla Girls, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Honest Espionage, Mary Mary, Glasgow, UK
2015
Medusa, Laurel Gitlen, New York, USA
2014
Novelty Court, Junior Projects, New York, USA
Selected group exhibitions
2025
Anywhere but Here, Candice Madey, New York, USA
2024
He Said, She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, USA
2023
Hollow Leg, Laurel Gitlen, New York, NY, USA
Time Travel, Italian Masters through a Contemporary Lens, Petzel, New York, NY, USA
Room by Room: Concepts, Themes, and Artists in The Rachofsky Collection, The Warehouse, Dallas, TX, USA
2022
Sausage Party, Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; usa
2021
Bitter Nest, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
Works on Paper – Jorge Pardo, Seth Price, Pieter Schoolwerth, Emily Mae Smith, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
2020
ABSTRACTION: between Representation and Non-Representation, Jason Haam, Seoul, South Korea
TITLE TBD, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
Myselves, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
A Love Letter to a Nightmare, Petzel Gallery, New York, NY
Art on the Grid, Public Art Fund, New York, NY
All of Them Witches, organized by Dan Nadel and Laurie Simmons, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA
2019
Personal Private Public, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY
Dark Laughter, curated by Barry Schwabsky, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, UK
Words, Alexander Berggruen Gallery, New York, NY
No Patience for Monuments, Galerie Perrotin, Seoul, South Korea
Home/Work, JDJ | The Ice House, Garrison, NY
Magnetic Fields, curated by Cecilia Alemani, Gió Marconi Gallery, Milan, Italy
The Smiths, Marlborough Gallery, London, UK
Throwback Jack, FREDERICKS & FREISER, New York, USA
AXxoN N., Essex Flowers, New York, NY
2018
A Strange Relative, Galerie Perrotin, New York, USA
Summer curated by Ugo Rondinone, Peter Freeman, New York, USA
Pine Barrens,Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York, USA
Six Artists, Harper’s Books, East Hampton/New York, USA
The Sun is Gone But We Have The Light, Unclebrother, Hancock/New York, USA
Dancing Goddesses curated by Marina Vranopoulou, Dio Horia, Mykonos, Greece
Texas curated by Matthew Brown, Philip Martin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Buddy System, Deanna Evans Projects, Brooklyn/New York, USA
Herding Cats, Again, Catbox Contemporary, Riggewood/New York, USA
Tell Him What We Said About Paint It Black curated by Andy Mister, 1 Mile Gallery, Kingston/New York, USA
The Revolutionary Suicide Mechanised Regiment Band Part 2, Rob Tufnell, London, UK
The Cruellest Month, Mother Gallery, Beacon/New York, USA
Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation curated by Margot Samel, Temnikova & Kasela, Tallinn, Estonia
Emily Mae Smith, Harper’s Books at the Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, USA
A Name Unfamiliar, Underlined in Red, curated by Ugo Rondinone, 39 Great Jones, New York, USA
2017
Engender curated by Joshua Friedman, Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Pharmacy for Idiots, Rob Tufnell, Cologne, Germany
Eyes, Nose, Lips, Etc. Etc., Left Field Gallery, San Luis Obispo/CA, USA
Her Eyes Are Like Doves Beside Streams of Water, Adams and Ollman, Portland/Oregon, USA
Sharper Image, Present Company, Brooklyn/New York, USA
The Little Apocrypha curated by Samuel Leuenberger and Elise Lammer, SALTS, Switzerland
Women to the Front, Works from the Miller Meigs Collection, Lumber Room, Portland/Oregon, USA
Le Quatrième Sexe curated by Marie Maertens, Le Coeur, Paris, France
2016
Scarlet Street, Lucien Terras, New York, USA
Me, Myself, I, China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, USA
Surrreal, König Galerie (St. Agnes), Berlin, Germany
What’s Up, curated by Lawrence van Hagen, Soho Revue, London, UK
Untitled Body Parts, Simone Subal Gallery, New York, USA
2015
Unrealism, organized by Jeffrey Deitch and Larry Gagosian, The Moore Building, Miami, USA
Mrs. Benway, Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland/OR, USA
I Dropped the Lemon Tart, Lisa Cooley, New York, USA
Six Advertisements, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, USA
Comic Relief, Levy.Delval, Brussels, Belgium
Oh, Of Course, You Were Berry Picking co-organized by Rosa Tyhurst, DREI Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Six possibilities in painting (int.) curated by Fabian Schöneich and Samuel Leuenberger, Galerie Bernhard, Zurich, Switzerland
2014
Help Is on the Way, organized by Sean Landers, Wasserman Projects, Birmingham, USA
Parallax Futured: Transtemporal Subjectivities, Skirball Museum, Cincinnati, USA
Kidnapped, eine Wohnungsausstellung, Petrus Entertainment
2013
Page 179, Artforum, September 2013, Brennan & Griffin, New York, USA
2012
Knowledge of the True Games, Know More Games, Brooklyn, USA
2011
Neon Singh collaboratino with Adam Henry, The Arcade, Nashville, USA
Anonymous Presence, Y Gallery, New York, USA
2010
Portugual Arte 10: Portuguese Biennial, Personal Freedom, Lisbon, Portugal
2009
On From Here, Guild and Greyshkul, New York, USA
2007
Love in a Cold Climate, curated by Sima Familant and Lisa Schiff, Allston Skirt Gallery, Boston, USA
The Cement Garden, Marvelli Gallery, New York, USA
2006
Summer Salon, curated by Kate Werble, Gerald Peters Gallery, New York, USA
2005
The Love Below, Marvelli Gallery, New York, USA
