EMILY WEISKOPF

EMILY WEISKOPF (b.1978, Syracuse, New York. Currently lives and works in Austin, TX)

Emily Weiskopf creates paintings and forms notable for their luminosity, fluid, and harmonic presence. Her interlocking fragmented, weaving wave-like compositions extend energy, light and time, inspiring shifts in perceptual awareness to transcend to a place where the present and the mythic world are united as one. Each work is methodically executed through a unique process—at once systematic and intuitive, which reflects the connection of her practice to strains of Minimalism and ritual cosmology. Her waves evoke a meditative sense of related tension between absence (space) and presence (light/color) and the experiential conflict between the longing for return and the ceaseless quest toward the unknown while making space and trust for spiritual otherness.  

Weiskopf’s trademark for line as both a connection and space between all things presents a convergent mode of abstraction to tactile experiences. She draws relations between the disparity of the disappearing natural world, the sacredness of life, and her personal struggles due to her ongoing spine conditions and physical constraints. She strives to create through a rich palette of materials dependent on her body’s capabilities that acts and emotes as portals and markers for healing, creating space for the sacred and bringing rebirth through interlocking the duality of isolation and connection by making peace with the impermanence of life.

Her early and ongoing pursuits in printmaking and ceramics continue to serve as a foundation informing her process while her concepts draw influences from her studies of Mayans beliefs, Buddhism, Native Americans, philosophy, and textiles.

Emily Weiskopf received a BFA from the Hartford Art School and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art. Weiskopf’s work has been featured in publications including Artnet, Gallerist NY, DNAinfo, the Contemporist, Art Nerd, the Hartford Current, the Brooklyn Rail and various blogs.

In 2013, the NY D.O.T commissioned Weiskopf’s first large scale public installation, Unparallel Way, which debuted in conjunction with the exhibition Brooklyn Utopias. Unparallel Way has been published in City Embellishment, Urban Design II and has since been exhibited at the Bushnell Sculpture Park, Hartford, CT and became part of CT Governor Sculpture Grounds at his residence.

Weiskopf was nominated for the Rome Prize in 2011 and has been awarded numerous fellowships and residencies including the Artist Pension Trust, Vermont Studio Center and the Wassiac Project. Weiskopf's works are held in both private and public collections.