A spate of young, New York City–based artists are bucking adherence to a single medium to pursue greater, more versatile visions. It’s not that they are simply multimedia artists: The ethos is bigger and broader. They have no loyalty to any one material, nor affinity to a label, preferring instead to move fluidly between whatever is needed to bring a project to fruition. What unites them is their determination to realize physically and intellectually ambitious ideas by whatever means necessary.
Of course, it’s not novel for artists to dabble with mediums outside of their comfort zones, and many bring in additional resources and team members to help realize more complex one-off endeavors. But for these six creatives, changing up their method is an overarching principle rather than a tangent in the arc of their practices. After all, when everything coalesces into a multifaceted whole, what’s the difference between oil painting and sculpture, metalworking and photography, or dance and installation?
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It’s impossible to count the number of layers and materials that make up Emma Safir’s works just by looking at them. Standing on the floor or hanging on the wall, each piece is at once a self-contained whole and a void of swirling fabric, colors, and textures that elude as they intrigue. The 35-year-old artist, who was born in New York City and grew up in New Jersey, wouldn’t have it any other way. “It’s a resistance to being easily defined or digested,” says Safir, emphasizing that she’s “driven by a material curiosity.” Not to mention a resolute independence. “I like to make things how I want, without any rules that I’m supposed to follow.”
While her mom guided her in sewing, she later taught herself embroidery and learned from a friend how to make pewter casts in her kitchen. The use of fabrics harkens back to Safir’s earlier dream of becoming a fashion designer; after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, the artist briefly had her own handbag line. Still, the practical constraints dampened the fun. “I hated having to do things that people needed to be functional,” she admits.“That was such a disappointing rule for me.”
She decided to return to school, landing at Yale’s Painting and Printmaking MFA program. There, too, she stood her ground, facing pushback for her non-conformity to conventional painting. “I feel that I’m using color, fabric, and photography in the way that people use paint: as a material to manipulate, rather than a technique,” she says.
A typical piece is “STARINA” (2025): Mounted over board and upholstery foam, a sheet of digitally printed silk features an obfuscating close-crop of a photo Safir took in London of masking tape on a plastic-wrapped glass door, the blurred reflection of the metropolis forming deep blues and purples. Affixed to the silk are a row of pewter seashells and patches of smocked embroidery, the stitching in one recreating a photo of camellias. “It feels like I’m finishing their outfits,” she says of the intuitive way she adorns her surfaces with additional elements. The visual impact is like staring down a nighttime cityscape through fog, as shapes and lines float in and out of focus in the peripheries.
This fall, Safir had a well-received solo show at New York’s Hesse Flatow and saw a piece land in the Whitney’s collection. Up next year: a solo exhibition at The Buffalo Institute for Contemporary Art. And don’t expect her to rein it in. “There’s a cultural disdain for the excessiveness of decoration,” she reflects. “But I want more.”
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