“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]