Emily Rose is a Puerto Rican-American interdisciplinary multimedia artist. She is a descendant of self-emancipators, artisans, seamstresses, dancers, fisher people, and farmers. Her artwork addresses the legacy of colonialism and its impact on the Caribbean diaspora, particularly the transference of ancestral trauma. Born and raised in Mission Hill, MA and surrounded by her family’s blend of cultures, food, celebrations, and spiritual beliefs, Emily Rose infuses her lived experience and stories of her family and ancestors into her work. Throughout her wide-ranging multimedia practice, Emily Rose makes vivid and imaginative work that focuses on healing, memory, and home. Oral stories, historical documents, found objects, and textiles often appear throughout the artist’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations.
Awarded the 2023 ACTivate residency at the Boston Center for the Arts, Emily Rose exhibited her first iteration of El Salón: Reimagining Self-love, Rituals, and Healing in the Kitchen at the Boston Center for the Arts. In the fall of 2024, Emily Rose will install the first iteration of El Bembé: Celebrating Life and Death en la Sala (The Party: Celebrating Life and Death in the Living Room), part of her three-part recall memory series, Homecoming (name subject to change), during a residency at the Kala Art Institute. Upcoming residencies include the Studio Residency at the Boston Center for the Arts. Group exhibitions of her work included Elevated Thought, ShowUp Inc. (formerly Beacon Gallery), Essex Art Center, Stevens-Coolidge House and Garden, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, The Dodge House Gallery, Mary Castelnovo Gallery, Copley Society of Art, The Umbrella Arts Center, Scollay Square Gallery, The Urbano Project, Boston Arts Academy. Publications of her work can be found in the Boston Art Review and Artscope.
Among her accomplishments, Emily Rose was awarded the Wagner Impact Studio Award, Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants for Creative Individuals, Boston Media Arts Empowerment Award, Edward Mitchell Bannister National Exhibition: Celebrating BIPOC Artists, and the Copley Society of Art National Show: Crossing Borders Grant. Committed to making the Greater Boston area more equitable and inclusive for the arts, Emily Rose has partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s Office to serve on the Advisory Grant Team and the Cultural Advisory Team to strengthen grant making and community building efforts.
Artist Statement
The power of memory, healing, and narrative are all reflected in my multimedia art. My work explores the emotional, physical, and psychological effects of the colonial relationship between the US and the Caribbean and its diaspora. I explore how identities are formed, rejected, and erased to build a sense of belonging and community. I use familial oral stories, found objects, and unconventional materials to uplift stories, people, places, and events. In my paintings, figures appear in lush landscapes and domestic interiors to invoke one’s imagination, senses, connections, and possibilities to create new meanings of identity and home. The unconventional materials found in my work are coconut husks, shells, rice, beans, chairs, fabric, tropical fruit, and beads. Influenced by familial oral stories around migration, sense of belonging, life, and loss, I repurpose found objects and revisit physical and metaphorical spaces through collective memories and dreams to remember and heal the past, present, and forgotten parts of ourselves.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2024 El Salón: Reimagining Self-Love, Rituals, and Healing in the Kitchen, Jean McDonough Arts Center, Worcester, MA (Forthcoming)
2023 El Salón: Reimagining Self-Love, Rituals, and Healing in the Kitchen, Boston Center for the Arts, Cyclorama, Boston, MA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024 Dark Matters: The Artistic Evolution Camp’s Final Showcase, Elevated Thought, Lawrence, MA
Shine Dorchester, Southline Boston, Boston, MA
2023 Unaccustomed Earth, ShowUp Inc., (formerly known as Beacon Gallery), Boston, MA
Made in USA): Crafted Visions, The Eliot School of Fine & Applied Arts( صنع في أمریكا, Boston, MA
Art in the Gardens, Essex Art Center and Stevens-Coolidge House and Garden, Andover, MA
EMERGING ARTISTS EXHIBIT, Kathryn Schultz Gallery, Cambridge, MA
Essex Art Center Salon Show + Art Sale 2023, Essex Art Center. Lawrence, MA
Edward Mitchell Bannister National Exhibition: Celebrating BIPOC Artists, Mary Castelnovo Gallery, Providence, RI
2022 Lost and Found, The Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA
Still Shining: Boston Arts Academy Alumni Show, Boston Arts Academy, Boston, MA
Fay Chandler EMERGING Art Exhibition, City of Boston Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
National Show: Crossing Borders, Copley Society of Art, Boston, MA
joy of living:summertime, Alchemy + Art, Amesbury, MA
Musketaquid Earth Month, The Umbrella Arts Center, Concord, MA
COLLABORATIONS
2024. El Salón x Adobo-Fish-Sauce, REC's YouthGROW Farm, Worcester, MA
COMMUNITY ART PROJECTS
2024 The Artist’s Lounge, Boston, MA
The Artistic Evolution Camp, Elevated Thought, Lawrence, MA
2023 Who Has A Voice? Radical Listening & Extended Vocality Program, The Urbano Project, Cambridge, MA
2022 Performance: History/Ritual/Identity" Community Art Project, The Urbano Project, Boston, MA
Safe Passage (Amulet), NOW +THERE Intern, Rhea Vedro’s Studio, Malden, MA
RESIDENCIES & FELLOWSHIPS
2024 Studio Residency, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
Artist-in-Residency Program, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
2023 ACTivate Residency, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
AWARDS & GRANTS
2024 Opportunity Fund, The City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
Wagner Impact Studio Award, Wagner Foundation, Boston, MA
Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants for Creative Individuals, Boston, MA
Boston Media Arts Empowerment Award, The Loop Lab & The City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Boston, MA
2023 Edward Mitchell Bannister National Exhibition: Celebrating BIPOC Artists, The Providence Art Club, Providence, RI
2022 National Show: Crossing Borders, Copley Society of Art, Boston, MA
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Unaccustomed Earth Exhibition Review, Artscope Magazine, Issue: November/December
Special Art Project, Boston Art Review, Issue 11: Emerging