LA-Based Artist Emma McIntyre Paints Magic

“With vivid hues and dynamic mark-making, [New Zealand-born artist Emma McIntyre] conjures up pieces that might change before our very eyes,” Berlin-based writer Olivia Parkes reports for the Art Basel website.

“[McIntyre’s] paintings are full of sudden turns: vivid pinks and petal tones blossom into muddier ground; a cloud of violet dulls to indigo or iodine red; the paint is dense and then suddenly thin; the movement is always fluid,” Parkes writes. “To achieve these restless tensions, McIntyre’s process balances chance and deliberate action. The artist begins working with her canvases on the floor, pouring and swiping paint to allow an initial composition to emerge. ‘Pouring allows so much more chance to come in,’ she says. ‘It forces me to be looser.’”

McIntyre, 32, moved to Los Angeles in 2019.

Original article by Olivia Parkes, Art Basel, October 24, 2023.

Photo by Brad Torchia.