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Emma Beatrez (b. 1995, New Prague, MN), is an interdisciplinary artist based in Minneapolis. They graduated from Minneapolis College of Art and Design in 2020 with a MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art and received their BFA with an emphasis in painting at North Dakota State University in 2018. Beatrez is the co-founder/curator at Night Club gallery in St. Paul alongside artist Lee Noble.
Solo shows include “Device of Love” (Nemeth Art Center, Park Rapids, MN, 2024), “TECHNOLUST 3000” (HAIR+NAILS, Minneapolis, 2022), and “Quarter Turn” (Fierman Gallery, NYC, 2022). Other recent shows include a two-person show at LVL3 (Chicago), and group shows at Nathalie Karg Gallery (NYC), Swivel Gallery (Brooklyn), Guts Gallery (London), Anthony Gallery (Chicago) and in collaboration with Lee Noble at the Weisman Art Museum (Minneapolis). Emma Beatrez is represented by HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis.
Hi Emma! It’s a pleasure to sit down with you! First question that I always ask. How does a regular day look like for you in Minneapolis?
Hey! So happy to be chatting with you – most days in Minneapolis recently I start painting around late morning and continue on into the next early morning. Before I start working I usually have to get some sort of energy drink; I used to go for a Hiball but they have discontinued them. It takes long stretches of time to really get somewhere with each painting – most of the composition needs to be brought up all wet at the same time to allow them to merge together properly. On a really good day I like to visit museums, go out for dinner/drinks with friends, play pool at the nearby bar, etc. I’ve recently gotten into playing chess so we bring our little magnetic travel board around places. The day usually ends with watching a thriller or horror movie that I will probably never make it through because I always fall asleep.
I’m curious. Growing up, what kind of kid were you, what did you enjoy doing and how did you spend your time?
Growing up in rural Minnesota was very formative for who I am today. My siblings and I were always outside playing in the mud or riding dirtbikes, atv’s, or running through the woods/swamp behind our house. I grew up in a catholic household and attended catholic school till high school, I think that feels important to know – although I’m not religious this influence or thinking comes through the work in unexpected ways. As a kid I was really into sports and probably tried out everything I could but I ended up being a figure skater. Growing up I really loved drawing – for some reason I would only draw horses as a child? I think I was a pretty easy going kid – I only snuck out of the house once maybe haha
So when did you start to paint, and when did you start taking being an artist seriously?
In undergrad I took my first proper painting class and decided to seriously consider being an artist. I initially went to school for biology and psychology but I really do think this changed the trajectory of my life.
Alright, let’s talk about your work now… There’s various everyday scenes in your work, what do you look for in a specific moment and think, I wanna document this on the canvas?
During grad school I took several years off painting to reintroduce myself to the process by making object and material based work exploring what I’m actually trying to do with my work without images. I think the tension on the paintings comes from this. These really are every day images but the framing matters to the way they are presented, and allows one to see the same thing new.
I think in general I go through phases of types of images I’m interested in using but overall I’m always considering how much information is really necessary to include to achieve the tension I’m after. Many times I make myself look through hundreds of public archive images from Minneapolis Public Library and make notes of what I’m responding to. Feels a little like a test in a way. I’ll usually find things overlapping and then I pull apart why these are catching my attention. I think many times it becomes a practice of jumping and crossing the many threads that are stretched through the work and how can I take that thing and remove it several times until it’s nearly lost its original identity and has taken on a new form with its associations still lingering but out of focus. Overall I guess this is kind of just the way I’m thinking about my work more broadly beyond images.
And the various protagonists…. Who are they?
It’s funny the word ‘protagonist’ is used because for the most part the figures are very ordinary and anonymous. Which is why the scene or the presentation of the figure is very important. I think this is particularly important for the paintings of the cheerleaders. I never was a cheerleader – I get asked that a lot – but it is such a strong archetype that everyone understands which makes it so easy to manipulate for the viewer or gives the image an undeniable entry point for everyone. Growing up in rural Minnesota the whole town revolved around football, farming, and church. People rode tractors and horses to school. The cheerleader “character” was the it girl. It doesn’t come from a place of spite but more so a fascination.
Can you describe how you use techniques like cropping, blurring, and redaction to explore themes such as memory, voyeurism, and recontextualization in your work?
Many times I’m looking for the structure of images to use as the blueprint for the painting. I’ve been sourcing these recently from personal phone images or public archive photos from around the 1920-30’s. I find that these photos tend to be less posed or self aware of the camera which leads them to feel more voyeuristic than something too contemporary which might feel too designed – that’s one thing I find intriguing about them.
The recontextualization and transference or information comes more into play in the larger body of work when these paintings exist together in context with one another or in physical proximity. The next one makes the last one stronger.
My general anxieties and/or desire for lightness, tends to be a driving force with how I’m navigating the images I’m exploring or constructing. Subconsciously everything I’m painting always comes back to something else I’m referencing but isn’t always obviously present. Whenever I’m making a decision of what to create or thinking about the images I’m working with, I’m trying to maximize the possibilities of how the image can be read or what can be drawn from it. I’m especially interested in using or fabricating images where multiple things can be gleaned from it in an instant – two things could be happening at the same time like a photographic necker cube.
Can you walk me through your creative process from beginning to end result?
Yeah! I tend to write a lot of notes in my sketch book but never draw unless it’s a sketch of the structure for a sculpture – generally this might be phrases or stacks of words I want to remember or types of images I’m considering. I like to look through physical archive folders of photographs at our local library and dive through ebay or craigslist for compositional inspiration. Sometimes I make a digital mock up or will have several photos on my computer and make decisions on the canvas as I build the painting. After starting the painting the last third of the process tends to be pretty intuitive in terms of achieving the feeling I’m going for.
Alright, so besides painting, installations and sculpture, you also run and curate “Night Club Gallery”, along with another renowned artist, Lee Noble. How do you two know each other? And why did you decide to open up a gallery of your own?
Lee and I met when we were attending grad school together. Night Club started as an extracurricular conceptual art club at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design) that Lee and I ran where we would host workshops and conceptual exercises with students and faculty in the evenings during school. This ended when the school closed due to the pandemic. After moving into our current house later in 2020 we decided to utilize the front space of the house given the odd characteristics of the space. We started hosting exhibitions and performances in the summer of July 2021; after a year and a half of programming in our house we opened a storefront gallery space in downtown St. Paul. This project allows us to provide a platform for other (local, national, and international) artists who we feel are underrepresented in the twin cities and to contribute something we want to see reflected in the art community here.
I know you also have experience making perfumes, how did that come about? How have you found that relating to the rest of your body of work?
My partner Lee took a class at the Institute of Art and Olfaction in LA a few years ago and learned about the making of perfumes and the way a scent is stacked/composed – its way more approachable than you might think, and you don’t need much for gear so I think the dissolving of preconceived ideas that its super confusing/difficult or whatever made it easier to just mess around and play with the ingredients. We’ve made a few small edition perfumes together in the past and a tear gas scented candle. Recently I had this idea to use perfumes to create exhibition reviews – we made one for Anthony Rundblade’s exhibition Cascade at Night Club that had notes of rubber, cleaning solution or sanitizer, lemon, drywall, etc. The most recent one I created was for my exhibition at Nemeth titled Device of Love that contained notes of gun smoke, tomato leaf, orange bitters, suede, cardamom, vetiver, tobacco, pink peppercorn, and seashell. In the past I have scented exhibition spaces where my work is being shown so you get an initial visceral reaction. It’s a fun thing to think about in terms of different avenues the work can take on various forms and extend outside of the visual.
In a parallel universe who would you be? and what would you be doing?
I think I would love to be a cat lol
Anybody you look up to?
Honestly, I have so many friends making amazing work and it’s cool to watch them doing so well – they are constant inspiration for me.
Alright Emma, I always ask these two questions at the end of an interview. The first is. What’s your favorite movie(s) and why?
It’s hard to pick a favorite but I keep coming back to the movie Burning. I think visually it’s a gorgeous movie but it’s also unsettling and sweet and sad at the same time. It’s definitely worth watching a few times.
The second is. What song(s) are you currently listening to the most right now?
This week I have been listening to TEMS