Emmi Whitehorse

TOPIARY

2023
mixed media on canvas
51 x 78 1/2 inches

“My paintings tell the story of knowing land over time—of being completely, microcosmically within a place,” says Whitehorse of her enigmatic compositions. For over 40 years, the unique landscape of the Southwest has been a prevailing source of inspiration for the artist. Her works on paper and canvas often situate abstract, gestural marks amidst vaporous fields of color. Deliberately meditative and slow, these paintings register fleeting sensory perceptions and subtle shifts in light, space, and color—the central axes around which the artist’s work has evolved. Throughout her career, Whitehorse’s longstanding commitment to beauty and peace has its origins in the Navajo philosophy Hózhó, which seeks to achieve a harmonious balance of life, mind, and body with nature.

Born 1957 in Crownpoint, New Mexico, Emmi Whitehorse is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. Whitehorse’s work has been the subject of dozens of museum and gallery presentations since 1979. She has participated in group exhibitions nationally and internationally, including this year in La Biennale di Venezia: Stranieri Ovunque – Strangers Everywhere and The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, at National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Her solo exhibitions have been held at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Tucson Museum of Art; and The Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe. Her work is held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville; Denver Art Museum; Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among many others.

[excerpted from Garth Greenan Gallery website: www.garthgreenan.com]

estimated retail value: $250,000

The TWO x TWO AUCTION will take place at The Rachofsky House on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Absentee bids must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Friday, October 18, 2024. If you are unable to attend TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art on Saturday, October 19, and would like to place a bid on a live or silent auction lot, you may complete the appropriate absentee bidding fields below. A TWO x TWO auction representative can bid on your behalf up to your pre-set maximum bid. If the work is part of the live auction, you may also be on the phone with an auction representative to place your bids during the live auction.

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