User:Emma Thibodeaux-Thompson/sandbox

Emma Kohlmann

Emma Kohlmann is an artist based in Western Massachusetts. Her work ranges from drawing and painting to zines, digital art, books and various media. Her primary focus is usually in working with ink and watercolor. Kohlmann has exhibited artwork as recently as 2020 and has a large and growing body of work. Much of her art is accessible via social media such as Instagram, along with some gallery shows and museum exhibitions.

Background and Education

Kohlmann grew up in the neighborhood of Riverdale in the Bronx, New York. She often drew as a child and was a ballet dancer until her senior year of high school, when, after working with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, she decided to leave dance. Kohlmann attended Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. There she studied subjects such as philosophy and feminist theory.

After completing her undergraduate education, Kohlmann began creating zines, which were published with the help of personal friends and acquaintances. In an interview with Amadeus Magazine in 2018, Kohlmann explained the personal nature of her artwork, and cited her home in Florence, MA as a place dominated by liberal ideas and activism which have informed her work. She is able to produce a large and growing volume of work because of the nature of the media she works with.

Art and Published Work

Style and Themes

Kohlmann's work is primarily defined by a large body of watercolor and ink-based artwork, along with some zines and art books. The artist's work often addresses themes of sexuality and intimacy along with botanical and nature-based motifs. Kohlmann often creates nude figures that do not adhere to a male canon, and that are often androgynous or disruptive of an anatomical binary. Sundrop Cactus, created in 2017, is an example of the ways Kohlmann disrupts conventional notions of gender and identity; the work features a yellow, human-like face on a cactus-like form, with blurred black lines and a lightbulb-shaped head. The Printed Matter description of this work explains that Kohlmann considers the body a political canvas, and prioritizes tenderness and affection for the human body over strictly defined idealizations of it. One of Kohlmann's books titled Notes From Excavation, published with Gideon Jacobs in 2017, includes notes and illustration from a trip to Pompeii's excavated cabinet of erotic art, a source of inspiration for the artist. Ultimately, ideas of intimacy, sex, and nature tend to be focal points of Kohlmann's art, and are expressed in a de-skilled, abstract method.

Exhibitions and Shows

Sundrop Cactus appeared on exclusive tickets to the 2017 NY Book Fair, as advertised by the Museum of Modern Art. Beyond her published art books and zines, Kohlmann's art has appeared in galleries as recently as early 2020 at the Chandran Gallery in San Francisco. This exhibit is titled I Have Considered the Lilies, and centers on the artist's exploration of floral and botanical concepts in relation to physical growth. Kohlmann exhibited at the Jack Hanley Gallery in New York in 2018, in addition to solo exhibitions at Nationale in Portland, OR and at Kit Gallery in Tokyo. More recently, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art has acquired a Kohlmann work for its permanent collection, and the artists has designed a series of illustrations for at least six Vogue articles published in succession in early 2020.