Emma McMillan

Born 1989, Atlanta, Georgia. She lives and works in East Dummerston, Vermont. Emma McMillan paints human and creature bodies as records of transformation. Working in layered alla-prima oil, she subverts the technique's historically fast, single-session tradition by accumulating many sessions on top of one another — excavating surfaces for traces of earlier decisions. Her grounds are built on iron oxide, the same pigment giving human blood its red color, lending images a sense of warmth and vitality flowing beneath the surface. 

In 2020, she initiated a series based on a local spotted lanternfly infestation that became a commentary on the current state of human and animal affairs. The insect's presence became a stand-in for human frailty and persistence of spirit. That series has since expanded across species, taking on overtones of reincarnation, desire, and mortality. Her gem-hued oil paintings are complex reflections on living and mutation across time. 

McMillan has had institutional exhibitions at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, Atlanta, Georgia, "Project X" (2019) and the Paul Rudolph Foundation (2021). Solo exhibitions include Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles (2024), PhilippZollinger, Zurich (2024), Liste Art Fair Basel with PhilippZollinger (2024), "Bleu de Prusse" at Edouard Montassut, Paris (2019), "Ornament and Crime" at Lomex, New York City (2018), and "Live Burial" at Bad Reputation Fine Arts, Los Angeles (2017). Select group exhibitions include "Discard Phase" at Triest, Brooklyn (2021), "Downtown Painting" at Peter Freeman, New York City (2019), and "Responsibility Fest" at Kunstverein Braunschweig / Wolfe Island, Canada (2019). Her work is held in the collections of the MIT List Center, Portland Museum of Art.