Emily Springer is an emerging artist, native of Silver Spring, Maryland. She has received a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the George Washington University, Corcoran School of the Arts and Design in Washington, DC. Her work has been featured at various galleries and art centers including the Corcoran galleries, Delaplaine, Montpelier, Pyramid Atlantic, and Chesapeake Arts Centers. Her practice is defined by the techniques of needlework that allows for her to create fabric compositions expressing the vast narratives and story-telling of Black womanhood. Through connections between ancestral legacies passed down to the elderly, middle, and the youth generations, her work functions as a veneration of collective memory through this deep cultural identity.

 

Artist Statement:

Rooted in cultural memory and collective experience, my practice honors the legacy of Black Womanhood and the enduring power of the Black Matriarchy. Here rise the stories of kinship foregrounded through symbolism and materiality. My work reflects generational bonds of unity, strength, and compassion through lineages of Black women. These histories have manifested through ancestral generations – elderly, middle, and youth. I utilize the artistry of needlework, including machine sewing, quilting, and embroidery. These practices honor historical and cultural significance to the Black community, presenting them in a contemporary art context. I create sewn tapestries and forms that display images of Black women through both abstract and representative figures, delving into the visual and symbolic language of fabric. I allow the shapes, textures, and colors of the fabric, alongside other mixed media processes, to interact and form intricate designs. I draw parallels between the permanence of these materials and the fortitude of heritage. The gesture of piecing together fragments speaks symbolically to the unified nature in which Black women have connected across generations. In choosing these practices, I reference historical legacies alongside the physical labor of storytelling. Through complex compositions, my work invites viewers to engage with a narrative that is deeply personal and universally resonant.