Emma McMillan

Interviews by Brainard Carey

Photo by Dan McMahon

Born 1989 Atlanta, Georgia. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and works in the Bronx, New York. Emma McMillan searches for the pulsing vitality of life through non-human figurative paintings. Drawing, collage, macroscopic photography, and archival research are avenues for abstraction of the animal form. For several years a local Spotted Lanternfly infestation has been a commentary on the current state of human and animal affairs. The series, now expanded across species, takes on lusty and religious overtones of reincarnation. Sampling psychology, the natural world, and pop culture, her gem-hued oil paintings are complex reflections on living and its mutations across time. Emma McMillan has had institutional exhibitions at Atlanta Contemporary ArtsCenter, Atlanta Georgia, “Project X” (2019) She has had solo exhibitions at Sebastian Gladstone, New York, 2025, Sebastian Gladstone, Los Angeles, 2024, PhilippZollinger, Zurich, 2024, and a solo booth with PhilippZollinger at Liste Art Fair Basel, in June 2024. Other solo exhibitions include “Bleu de Prusse” at Edouard Montassut, Paris, France (2019), “Ornament and Crime” at Lomex, New York City, New York (2018), and “Live Burial” at Bad Reputation Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California (2017). As well as select group and two-person exhibitions “Discard Phase” at Triest, Brooklyn, New York (2021), “Downtown Painting” at Peter Freeman, New York City, New York (2019), “Responsibility Fest” at Kunstverien Braunschweig Wolfe Island, Canada (2019).

Emma McMillan, Imago, 2025 Oil, oil pastel on linen 55″ H x 42″ W. Image courtesy, Sebastian Gladstone, and the artist.

Emma McMillan Crush, 2024 Oil on linen 36″ H x 24″ W. Image courtesy, Sebastian Gladstone, and the artist.

Emma McMillan, Cocoon, 2025 Oil, oil pastel on linen 55″ H x 42″ W. Image courtesy, Sebastian Gladstone, and the artist.