Em Rooney
Em Rooney
b. 1983
Lives and works between Canaan, CT and New York, NY
Em Rooney’s multimedia practice is anchored in a study of film, photography, and the material indices of these seemingly ephemeral, auratic genres. In the artist’s earlier work, analog methods of photography were paired with sculptural framing devices. Using steel brackets, leaded crystal enclosures, pewter embellishments, and other heavy, industrial materials that engage tactility and imply a substantive weight to their contents, these works reinforce the photographic image’s material presence, as pictures grow increasingly untethered from authorship and origin in the digital era. Rooney’s images focus on the experiences of women and girls, her style deliberately pedestrian yet narratively opaque, indicating everyday mystery. As Rooney’s sculptural objects have increased in scale in recent years, so have they developed a formal autonomy from photography, while maintaining a conceptual link to film: costume design, filmic ephemera, and the portrayal of women onscreen inform the artist’s structural and material techniques, many of which are improvised in her studio and original to her practice. Based on botanical forms, or, most recently, the eclosion cycle of butterflies, Rooney’s sculpture continues to allude to the dichotomy between seen and unseen, as it is uniquely experienced by women.
EDUCATION
| 2012 | Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME |
| 2011 | Master of Fine Arts, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA |
| 2005 | Bachelor of Arts, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA |
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
| 2024 | Imagined Beauty Begins Now, Derosia, New York, NY |
| 2023 | Double Portrait, Paena, Mexico City, Mexico |
| 2022 | Entrance of Butterfly, Derosia, New York, NY |
| 2020 | Women in Fiction, Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2019 | You, Too, Know That You Live, Fons Welters, Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| 2018 | Ordinary Time, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY |
| 2016 | The Word for Forest, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY Infinite Iotic, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH |
| 2014 | Night Painting, Beverly’s, New York, NY |
| 2013 | Flesh and Ground, The Good Press Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| 2011 | All Alone, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA |
| 2010 | Like Flex / Like Flex, with Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Bodega (Derosia), Philadelphia, PA |
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
| 2025 | Remains, Bureau, New York, NY |
| 2023 | Anything can pass before the eyes of a person, Derosia, New York, NY Plant a Weed, curated by Francesca Altamura, Jack Barrett Gallery, New York City, NY Silent Retreat, Dunes, Portland, ME I ♥ NO GO HOME, Astor Weeks, New York City, NY |
| 2022 | Conflict Assembly, September, Kinderhook, NY New England Triennial, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA Manual, im labor, Tokyo, Japan Chambres d’Amis: Ikea, Office Baroque, Antwerp, Belgium The White Columns Annual, organized by Mary Manning, White Columns, New York, NY |
| 2021 | Chewing Fat, organized by Nancy Lupo, Kristina Kite Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Boys & Girls, curated by Alex Berns, No Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2020 | There Will Come Soft Rains, Gallery Candace Madey, New York, NY An Artist Age Mess, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY |
| 2019 | Nurikabe, organized by Troedsson Villa, Tetsuo’s Garage, Nikko, Japan Peel, François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, CA Creation of a Moment, KaviarFactory, Henningsvær, Norway THINK OF ME, Adams & Ollman, Portland, OR Les Soirées de Paris, Crèvecoeur, Paris, France |
| 2018 | Figure in a Landscape, Foxy Production, New York, NY Group exhibition with Huong Ngo, Elizabeth Atterbury, and Gordon Hall, Document, Chicago, IL Being: New Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY |
| 2017 | Rubbings, Skibum MacArthur, Los Angeles, CA Webutuck Vuitton, curated by Carlos Reyes, The Re-Institute, Millerton, NY redirecting, Simone Subal, New York, NY We The Watchers Are Also Bodies, Hercules, New York, NY |
| 2016 | Under all this dirt the floor is really very clean, Motel, Brooklyn, NY Dana Hoey & Em Rooney, Raising Cattle, Montreal, Canada After the Sun, The Vanity Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Center for Experimental Lectures, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY |
| 2015 | Kleenex Rose, Bodega (Derosia), New York, NY Space Answers, Bannerette, New York, NY |
| 2014 | I Make Me Up: The Work of Robert Seydel and His Students, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA Sex Without Bodies, Temporary Agency, New York, NY |
| 2013 | Silhouettes, Fort Hamilton Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2012 | B-Out , Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY Wrest, Spectrum, New York, NY |
| 2011 | The Associates, 1717 Troutman Gallery, New York, NY Night Swings, Bodega (Derosia), Philadelphia, PA Gender Reel Art and Film Festival, Philadelphia, PA A Love Supreme, Philadelphia Photo Arts Center, Philadelphia, PA Woot!, The Ice Box, Philadelphia, PA Vagabondage, curated by Candice Madey, Hunter College, New York, NY |
LECTURES AND PANELS
| 2024 | Hunter College, New York, NY The University of California, Los Angeles, CA |
| 2023 | Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ Emily Carr University, Vancouver, Canada |
| 2022 | The University of Southern Florida, Tampa, FL |
| 2021 | Yale University Sculpture Department, New Haven, CT |
| 2019 | Gary Metz Lecturer, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI |
| 2018 | Forever in Transition: Reconsidering Art and Politics of the 1980s, Panel Discussion, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Visiting Critic, Columbia MFA Program in Visual Art, New York, NY Visiting Critic, School of Visual Arts, MFA Summer program, New York, NY Visiting Critic, Cranbrook School of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI |
| 2017 | Visiting Artist Lecture, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH PENCIL, COIN, KEYBOARD, DRINKING GLASS, HUMAN HAND OR FINGER, Situations, New York, NY |
| 2016 | Remembering the 60’s: Rowland Scherman Panel Discussion, Denison University, Granville, OH Visiting Artist Lecture, Ohio University, Athens, OH Center for Experimental Lectures, Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY |
| 2015 | Visiting Artist Lecture, Columbus College of Art and Design, Columbus, OH |
SELECTED CURATORIAL PROJECTS
| 2017 | Other Romances: Marissa Bluestone, Terry Evans, Emma Hedditch, Xylor Jane, Baseera Khan, Sable Elyse Smith, Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY |
| 2015 | Toward a Thinking Rug: Eileen Myles, Grady O’Connor, Eric Veit, Carmen Winant, and Zoë Wright, Banerette, Brooklyn, NY |
| 2014 | Portraits in Convex Mirrors: Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Marissa Bluestone, Yevgeniya Baras, Michael Berryhill, Leigh Ruple, Alex Cohen, Xinyi Cheng, Nickolas Roudané, Bannerette, Brooklyn, NY |
| 2012 | How to be Brash in New Unreddened Spaces: Isle Murdock, Emre Kocagil, Elanor Aldrich, Shirah Neumann, Gabe Pionkowski, Anna So Young Han, Ash Ferlito, Mary Vetisse, The Bermont Lab, Skowhegan, ME Celeste Dupuy-Spencer: The Deal, The Nicola Midnight St. Claire, Online |
| 2011 | Joanna Seitz: Rooms, Tyler Photography Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Elizabeth Atterbury and Ashley Clarke: Thieves in the Temple, Tyler Photography Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Bryan Graf: Sun Room, Tyler Photography Gallery, Philadelphia, PA Elyse Derosia: Natural Portrait, Tyler Photography Gallery, Philadelphia, PA |
PUBLICATIONS
Xylor Jane: Notebooks, 2019, Print
Masculini (contributor) by Nancy Lupo, 2015
18+: Whatever Bodies, Races, Things, Art Papers, 2013, Print
Love is in the Flowers, Good Press, 2013, Print
On Strauss Bourque-LaFrance, Performa Magazine Online, 2013
Night Swings, Bodega Press, 2012, Print
Knees On Neck, Rhinoceros Event: Issue #2, 2012
Laurie Anderson at The Fabric Workshop, The Nicola Midnight St. Claire, 2012
Introspective /Retrospective, Fleisher/Ollman , The Nicola Midnight St. Claire, 2012
The Philadelphia Story: A Check Up, The Nicola Midnight St. Claire, 2012
SELECTED PRESS
Twilight Talks with Kevin Moore, CUNY TV, May 26, 2022, Television
Em Rooney’s Entrance of Butterfly, R.H. Lossin, Art Agenda, May 13, 2022
Em Rooney, an interview with Wendy Vogel, Foundwork, October 25, 2021
Interview: Em Rooney on finish and embodiment in “Women in Fiction,” Ashton Cooper, Artforum, December 15, 2020
Our Sense of Self and the Chaos of our Strongest Feelings, Emile Rubino, La Chauffage, Issue One, Print
Em Rooney Explores the Photograph as Something to Be Held, Rosalind Duguid, Elephant Magazine, August 18, 2020
Partial Accountings of Photography, Sheilah ReStack, BlackFlash Magazine, Issue 37.1, 2020
Em Rooney, Objectiv Magazine Issue 20, November 3, 2019, Print
Interview: Em Rooney, Brainard Carey, Yale University Radio, July 4, 2019, Radio
Basel Roundup, Ingo Niermann, Art Agenda, June 18, 2019
Paris Internationale, Julie Ackermann, Beaux Arts, October 19, 2018
Em Rooney, David Everitt Howe, Art in America, June 1, 2018, Print
10 Galleries to Visit Now on the Lower East Side, Holland Cotter, The New York Times, April 26, 2018, Print
MoMA’s ‘New Photography’ Series Asks What It Means to Be Human, André-Naquian Wheeler, i-D, March 27, 2018
MoMA’s Gripping ‘New Photography’ Goes Behind the Lens, Alex Greenberger, ARTnews, March 22, 2018
MoMA’s New Photography Show Is a Testament to Being Human, Sarah Valdez, Garage, March 22, 2018
At MoMA, Photography Doesn’t Have to Reinvent Itself to be Radical, Scott Indrisik, Artsy, March 20, 2018
Being: New Photography 2018 at MoMA, Maisie Skidmore, British Journal of Photography, March 15, 2018
Being and Belonging at MoMA, Annika Klein, Aperture, March 15, 2018
What’s New in Photogoraphy? Humanism, MoMA Says, Arthur Lubow, The New York Times, March 9, 2018
Look Harder: Good Art Things to See This Week, Rachel Miller, Brooklyn Magazine, December 7, 2016
LA Critic’s Guide, Olivian Cha, Frieze, September 2016
Em Rooney, Andrew Kachel, Artforum, January 2016
Em Rooney, ‘The Word for Forest’ at Bodega, ARTnews, January 22, 2016
Portraits in Convex Mirrors, Scott Robinson, Painting is Dead, October 12, 2014
AWARDS AND RESIDENCIES
| 2024 | Anonymous Was A Woman Grant Nominee |
| 2019 | MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, New Hampshire |
| 2017 | Interstate Studio Residency, Brooklyn, NY |
| 2016 | Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant |
| 2015 | Shandaken at Storm King Artist in Residence, New Windsor, NY |
| 2013 | Pollock-Krasner Grant for Emergency Fellowship |
| 2011 | A Love Supreme juried by Peter Barbary, First Prize |
| 2010 | Project Completion Grant, Temple University Teaching Assistantship, Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA |
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL