The Selection Committee Radio Show with Emily Mae Smith, 2/5/23

One of my oldest friends, painter Emily Mae Smith GOES HARD on this episode of the Selection Committee. Bringing in a mixtape of goth and industrial songs that she listens to in the studio when on a deadline, Smith gets us in the mood for productive violence, talking about her predilection for groups with dangerous performances and connections to avant-garde art movements.

Like a good goth song, Emily’s meticulously rendered paintings reference both high art and cheap culture to create shimmering tableaux of ludic nihilism. Reflecting on her work’s references to art history, Smith talks about the way the female figure is used as a formal cipher for male artists, the rage and alienation this engenders, and how she’s using her work to paint her own place in history.
We discuss the ethical implications of taking on violent and/or charged subject matter in art and the return of the Satanic panic. We also reminisce about our shared youth at the turn of the century in central Texas!