| Artist | Emma Hapner | Resides | United States |
| Website | emmahapner.com | Medium | Oil Pencil |
| Follow the Artist | [email protected] | ||
| Themes | Unapologetic Femininity Contemporary Feminism Girly Aesthetic Monochrome Pink Classical Imagery Medieval Inspiration Divine feminine Wild Woman |
About the artist
For Emma Hapner, pink represents an unapologetic expression of femininity. She portrays her subjects within pink landscapes and draws inspiration from classical antiquity to honor traditional painting through her lens: “A woman exploring the complexities of womanhood”.
Emma’s figurative artwork revolves around the contrasting aspects of womanhood she has encountered, investigating the yearning to embrace both strength and sexuality while also appreciating beauty, gentleness, and “feminine” qualities, recognizing that these elements can coexist without diminishing one another.
In various pieces, Emma Hapner incorporates clothing, costumes, and stage poses that reflect themes of fantasy and narrative, as if she is playing a dress-up game. The attire we choose has the power to transform our perspective and demeanor; wearing heels can create a sensation akin to donning armor. Each distinct outfit enables me to adopt a new persona.
“Embracing my love of pink is important to me, as a woman and an artist”. By surrounding various figures with a vibrant pink backdrop, Emma aims to illustrate the personal, complex, and dynamic relationship one has with oneself. Traditionally, soft pink has been associated with young girls, but in her artwork, she utilizes bolder tones of quinacridone red, magenta, and fluorescent pink to embody both sensuality and strength.
Artwork Themes & Subject Matter
Emma Hapner’s bold monochromatic pieces interrogate notions of femininity and power, incorporating classical and contemporary imagery to explore and complicate our relationship to womanhood. Blending the mythological and modern, she creates images that engage with and subvert historical tropes.
Emma uses traditional methods and references—she works primarily with oil paint and riffs on a host of historical forms, including medieval tapestries, Georgian lovers’ eyes, and Renaissance triptychs and icons—to make decidedly novel work. Her figures are realistically rendered in impossible hues, a hot-pink palette that both embraces and defamiliarizes stereotypical femininity. Using shades of quinacridone red, magenta, and fluorescent rose, she creates images that are playful, sensual, and thrumming with internal power.
Upcoming Exhibitions
| When | Exhibition | Gallery |
| May 2025 | Group exhibition: ‘Two of a Kind” | 19 Karen Gallery Mermaid Beach, Queensland, Australia |
CV
Education
2022
MFA, New York Academy of Art, New York, United States
2019
BFA, Ball State University, Indiana, United States
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
All’s Fair, Warnes Contemporary, New York, United States
2023
Girls Will Be Girls, Village One, New York, United States
Cowgirls and Mermaids, Village One, New York, United States
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Going Guerrilla, Eclectica Contemporary, Cape Town, South Africa
Generations, Anderson Contemporary, New York, United States
Heart of the Garden, Black Brick Project, New York, United States
2023
Wild Card, Spring Break Art Show, New York, United States
Foundations, Artsy, Virtual
High Maintenance, Tchotchke Gallery, New York, United States
2022
Spectrum, Better Go South, Stuttgart, Germany
The Rebel Exhibit, The Untitled Space, New York, United States
Tomorrow’s Women, Natasha Arlesan Gallery, London, United Kingdom
The Patriot, O’Flaherty’s, New York, United States
Femininity, Lorin Gallery, Los Angeles, United States
