To be fair, I knew of Emma Safir’s work prior to this week, so I would say this was more of a re-discovery (she was featured in our “Artists on Our Radar” series in October 2021). That said, the New York–based Yale grad’s works felt more compelling than ever and were featured prominently at NADA—on the ground floor in an impressive solo booth with the young Lower East Side gallery Blade Study, and upstairs within a three-artist presentation with Chelsea’s HESSE FLATOW.
In both presentations, we see the fresh ways that Safir is continuing to grow her practice, deftly employing both digital and analog techniques. The works serve as both partitions and portals, and push us to consider ideas of privacy. The wall-based pieces continue Safir’s practice of stitching together photographs digitally and then printing them on silk and using upholstery techniques to conjure supremely elegant paintings.
Notable, too, is Safir’s use of silvery pewter, which adorns the paintings with shimmery blossoms or lacelike flourishes, though there are standalone sculptures, too. Particularly exciting are the tall metal stands topped with frames filled with delicate webs that reinvigorate the tradition of 18th-century face screens.
Safir opened a solo show with Blade Study this week and will have a solo exhibition with Selena Parnon Project Space in New York later this year and HESSE FLATOW next year.
