[emmythe]

Check out my essay, "No Guarantees: The Invisible Dragon Thirty Years On" in Vol. 8 of Precog Magazine. I look back at Dave Hickey's thesis from thirty years ago to argue that museums are bad interfaces between artworks and the public when they dictate a prescribed morality. Purchase a copy here!

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A text I wrote for the Ultra Space Symposium 2023 inspired by the work of artists Arakawa & Gins at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM). I discussed my project, Knee-cam, in relationship to flatworms in space and the disorienting architecture of Arakawa & Gins.

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FJORD is thrilled to continue to usher in a new era of curatorial projects at our new location at 1720 North 5th st.

Please join us for a reception with the artists: Saturday, September 17th from 5-8 pm.

Bumpers are devices that hold us in place: schedules, budgets, physical limitations, the finitude of human life. Emmy Thelander and Mira Putnam are two Brooklyn based artists working in painting and sculpture. As diverse as Emmy’s paintings are (they look as if a different artist could have made each one), Mira’s material choices are also wide. There is a playfulness and a curiosity in both artists’ works that made the pairing both logical and exciting. We asked each artist to respond to one another’s practice, and here is what they shared with us: Emmy on Mira: When I look at Mira’s work, I am immersed in surface details—mostly glossy, different colors, formed by hand. It is earth becoming domestic. There is something religious and ritualistic, but also mundane and profane. When I was 11 years old, I brought a scented jelly candle—red, transparent—into a fort in my backyard that my mom, brother, and I had built out of 2x4s and plywood. It was night and I was by myself. I lit the candle and laid on the floor of the fort. I felt essential; stripped of the quotidian aspects of my life, like I might feel camping or in a temple. Neither experience was familiar to me. Mira’s work merges the accessories that decorated my bedroom of that era circa 1999, and the longing I felt for a transcendental ritual. The perfect bedroom accessory—a lamp—manages to be both a commodity and a psycho-spiritual resonator through its tinted illumination. In Mira’s work, processes tell stories, like your shirt after you’ve worn it for the day or the leftover texture after scraping away a tile. Almost every surface shows evidence of her fingertips. The abundance of information might be a form of control. Like lying in my wood fort with a candle, Mira’s work longs to recreate ancient, archetypal experience. It is architecture at the beginning and end of time, decorated with the synthetic abundance of humanity. Mira on Emmy: When I look at Emmy’s paintings, I am reminded of the magic potions of my preteens. Instead of hiding in a closet and combining all of her mother’s lotions and oils into a single jar, Emmy lays her spells out on beautiful, rich, experimental surfaces, each one containing its own logic and ingredients unique to the magic at hand. They are dream-like portals into the most optimistic and complex priorities, wishes, and desires. There is vulnerability in their honesty and bluntness, hinting at memories of my sacred teen notebooks, each page packed with scribbled words of things I wanted but was too afraid to say out loud. Artist Bios: Emmy Thelander devises idiosyncratic systems that give rise to drawings, paintings, and video. She received her MFA in Painting from Yale University in 2014 and has received fellowships including the Lighthouse Works, the Fountainhead at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the Alice Kimball English Traveling grant. She has exhibited solo projects at Practice (Philadelphia, PA), Los Ojos (Brooklyn, NY), In The Pines (Jackson, WY), and Reynolds Gallery (Richmond, VA) and has been an artist-in-residence at The Alex Brown Foundation, Signal Culture, ACRE, the Osage Arts Community, and the Yale/Norfolk Summer School. She teaches at Hunter College and Hostos Community College of the City University of New York. Mira Putnam (b. Philadelphia 1991) is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Queens, NY. She holds a BFA in Painting from Rhode Island School of Design and is a MFA Candidate in Sculpture at Milton Avery Graduate School of the Fine Arts at Bard College. She has recently exhibited at Rachel Uffner Gallery (NYC), Kai Matsumiya (NYC), Andrew Edlin (NYC), and 123 Astronaut (Los Angeles), and has participated residencies at Brush Creek Center for the Arts, Hambidge Center for the Arts and Sciences and Wassaic Project. Putnam’s original radio play (“Cruise Play”) written in collaboration with Ryan Bush was recently commissioned and aired by Montez Press Radio (NYC). Mira is currently a Teaching Artist in the New York City public school system.

FJORD is a 501c3 non-profit artist-run gallery that elevates the visibility of both emerging and established artists within Philadelphia and beyond by facilitating exhibitions, curatorial projects, collaborations and public programming that highlight diverse media and artistic concerns.

FJORD is located at 1720 N. 5th St. Philadelphia, PA

[emmythe]

Documentation of new work started at the Alex Brown Foundation in 2022. More to come.

[emmythe]

Happy Barrettes is an edition that grew from my painting project In a Good Year. There are 16 available in four colors: blue, green, purple, and yellow. Collectible and wearable. $65 includes shipping and a donation to Women for Women International

Order your own set here.

Thank you for your support. To tasty lunches, calls from mom, snow days, and other favorable events.

[emmythe]

Excited to be an inaugural artist in residence at the Alex Brown foundation in the fall of 2021!

https://www.artforum.com/news/alex-brown-foundation-announces-inaugural-artist-residencies-85749

[emmythe]

Sneak peek: working on an edition of hair barrettes with packaging based on a set I originally made for an event organized by @deirdresargent for her show @catboxcontemporary in 2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/CMxfmTVF1Vi/?igshid=1n2wjg2mqdkm9

[emmythe]

Postcards from Italy (Two Brothers) Egg tempera on artist’s gesso on plywood panel 2020

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drawings https://www.instagram.com/p/CH0sSC2lGrb/?igshid=phjvyaficu9k

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Collecting

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2020 studio shots

[emmythe]

Back in the early summer, Chie Fueki asked for contributions of small objects to gather into a collective altar of sort--a gesture of hope, renewal, and gathering at a time when we were forced to isolate from each other. This is the piece I contributed in collaboration with Andrew Francis: colored pencil shavings and egg yolk on egg shell. Chie's installation could be viewed from the large glass garage door of the gallery when the art world was closed down. Will Heinrich reviewed her installation in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/arts/design/virtual-art-galleries.html

[emmythe]

artloversnewyork post about my opening at Practice: http://www.artloversnewyork.com/zine/the-bomb/2019/04/11/emmy-thelander-outfits-for-acrobats-practice-gallery-philadelphia-april/

Thanks, Nancy Smith! (and Nicholas Steindorf!)

[emmythe]

Emmy Thelander: Outfits for Acrobats at Practice Gallery

My show, Outfits for Acrobats, is open at Practice Gallery in Philadelphia April 5th to April 28th. Open Saturday and Sunday 2-6 pm and by appointment. Please come through.

Link: Practice Gallery: Emmy Thelander / Outfits for Acrobats

[emmythe]

Buy an acrobat

I have a solo show at Practice, an artist-run gallery in Philadelphia, opening on April 5th. In an effort to help me cover the costs of framing, travel, and installation, I’m offering drawings from my series Outfits for Acrobats to friends and family for $125 prior to the opening. 

You can buy an acrobat here.