Emma Balder (b. 1990, Boston, MA) is a contemporary artist who received a BFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2012. She has exhibited in venues such as Torpedo Factory Art Center (Alexandria, Virginia), Lawndale Art Center (Houston), Trestle Gallery (New York), The Lincoln Center (Fort Collins), Foltz Fine Art (Houston), Gutstein Gallery (Savannah), The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (Beaumont), among others. In 2015, she was awarded a one-year residency at the Vermont Studio Center and was named a finalist of the Peripheral Vision Foundation Prize in 2016. Balder was a 2022 recipient of the Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant from the Houston Arts Alliance, funded by the City of Houston. The artist’s work has been written about in the Houston Chronicle, Art Maze Mag, Denver Life Magazine, 303 Magazine, Emboss Magazine, Artifactoid, Art Houston Magazine and more. Balder has facilitated workshops throughout the US, including at the MCA Denver and MFAH in Houston. She has collaborated with companies such as Meow Wolf, Sweetgreen and PepsiCo’s LIFEWTR. As of 2023, Balder currently lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

CV

With a background in painting and an affinity for fibers, abstract artist Emma Balder is constantly discovering ways to manipulate her material through a new lens. Balder’s work is a confluence of painting and textiles; her main processes involve treating paintings like fabric and fibers like paint. The artist deconstructs and then reconstructs her own paintings with needle and thread (quilted paintings), and paints with small fabric remnants using a paintbrush and matte medium (fiber paintings). Through reconstructing fragmented paintings and textile waste, Balder’s work focuses on themes of transformation, connection, and regeneration. The artist collaborates with her material, creating a new reality for the fragmented parts. The material exists not as waste, but as cultural compost, reincorporated into the soil that feeds her work. In Rorschachian fashion, the work’s visual imagery alludes to the natural world: creatures, fungus, tree trunks and deconstructed landscapes appear within the abstract. Fibers symbolize the connecting threads of life: our inherent relationship to nature, and to each other. Breaking material barriers, the work serves as a connector between humanity and the natural world.

For press, studio visits, purchases, and all other inquiries, please email emmaabalder@gmail.com.