Ema Ri
Ema Ri is a Miami-based, queer-identified, Cuban-American artist. They earned their Bachelor in Fine Art at New World School of the Arts in 2017.
They’ve had 2 solo debuts at Spinello Projects – Undercurrent in 2021, and In So Deep in 2023.
Ema Ri’s work has also been exhibited in the following group shows: Cifo Gallery – Unbound in 2017, The 2018 CINTAS Finalist – Lowe Art Museum in 2017-18, Mindy Solomon Gallery – Make It Nice Again in 2017, and The Fountainhead – Everyday is Summer and Spinello Projects – FREE! in 2018.
In recent years their work has been shown at Oolite Arts’ Lean-To, 2022, Landscape of Realities, 2023, It Was Always About You, 2023 Dimensions Variable’s Project Room – Ouroboros in 2020, Locust Project – A landscape longed for: the garden as disturbance in 2021. In 2022-2023 they were part of UNTITLED Art Fair – Special Projects Program during Miami Art Week, El Espacio23 – You Know Who You Are, and MoCA Miami – The South Florida Cultural Consortium.
They’re currently in an artist in residence program at Oolite Arts (2022-23), and have participated in other residency programs including Kinosaito Arts (2022), Atlantic Center for the Arts (2022) and NWSA Alumni Studio Residency (2017-18).
They have been awarded numerous grants and awards over the years. In 2017, they were one of seven finalists for the CINTAS Fellowship. They also received support from the Wavemaker Grant for research and development in 2021, and received an implementation grant the following year for their exploration with flowers. In 2022, they received an Ellies Creators Award and was selected as a recipient of the South Florida Cultural Consortium prize for Miami-Dade.
Artist Statement
“A sense of homelessness and exile have been profoundly impactful forces in my life. Naturally, they are woven deeply into the fabric of my artistic practice. I’m a second-generation Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist. I am also queer, though my queerness is less a function of my sexuality than it is a question of exile. Exile from the boundaries of the Normal, the Moral, even the Real. I am the child of first-generation Cuban migrants. I am brown. I live with physical and learning disabilities. Though vital, none of these things wholly encapsulate me. I am more than the total sum of my categories. But they’re nevertheless significant, even central, to who I am, and subsequently, to my artistic practice.”
Program
- 2023 Studio Resident
- 2022 Studio Resident
- 2022 Home + Away
Images
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