You can’t think about New York City and not think about the incredible history of artists that have defined and redefined art through the ages. This year Kevin and I are cohosting the Brooklyn Artists Ball after-party, so the rest of this week we will be doing studio tours here of a few of the artists, all based in Brooklyn, who are creating special pieces to be on exhibition at each of the guests’ tables for the museum’s annual fundraising event.
When you walk into Emily Noelle Lambert‘s studio in Greenpoint you instantly feel happier from the colors, the freedom of paint, and the joy of the artist. The walls explode with pieces ranging from paintings to found wooden structures to metal works, the result of collaborations with her brother, who is a blacksmith. The center of the room is filled with one long descending table with a beautiful range of height, texture, and saturations of color, where all the sculptures seem to dance with each other. She talks to us about her creation for the Brooklyn Artist Ball and her life as an artist…
Emily on her sculptures being “small gestures that turn into little moments that could live in a larger painting. I like to look at the texture and the history of each object and what each of the forms do and try to begin to have another conversation with what I pair them with. Once I started painting them them it really starts to feel like they are brush strokes themselves.”
On her centerpieces she is creating for the ball: “I really want the table to have more of a landscape feel. That is where I’m at now…I have all the pieces but I need to figure out the space between them, how they are going to speak to each other. ”
On her history of art: “I come to painting from creative parents. It was always about making things that were in your life. My mom made our couch into a painting. I love when pieces go out in the world and live on in a new space. ”
On an artist’s life: “I get to do what I love. I love having my work in private homes. I want to keep making until I’m 95. To see the changes that happen through that period of time. I see it with this collection, it’s familiar and new and I look forward to where it will go. ‘Art is long.’ I love that quote. ”
On living in New York and finding inspiration: “I love going to the MET, going to galleries and seeing my friends work. The city is so full of inspiration. I’ve gone through the phase of ‘It’s such a hard place to live’ to ‘It’s amazing here’. My roof has a 360 view of Manhattan with no tall buildings around, it is just beautiful.“
On what is next: “Residency in Montauk for 6 weeks in June where I look forward to finding objects on the beach to work with, then a residency on the Lower East Side and a show at the Brian Morris gallery at the end of May.”
On who she admires: “Milton Avery, Picasso, Hans Hofmann, Cy Twombly, Niki de Saint Phalle.”
Come see all of us at the Brooklyn Artists After Party! You can purchase tickets here and no, I have no idea what to wear…
See the studios of other Brooklyn-based artists: FAILE, Alison Elizabeth Taylor, and José Parlá!