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), Sam Houston State University (Huntsville, TX), The Art Museum of Southeast Texas (Beaumont), among others. In 2014, she was awarded a one-year residency at the Vermont Studio Center: conversing daily with other resident artists, attending weekly Visiting Artist talks and studio visits. This gift of time, space, and community granted her a dense, focused experience which drastically shifted her practice. Additionally, Balder has been awarded residencies at Stove Works, Elsewhere Studios, and Hambidge. In 2022, she was a recipient of the Houston Arts Alliance Support for Artists and Creative Individuals grant, funded by the City of Houston, in which the artist facilitated a community project and installation with community members’ textiles. In 2024, Balder received an Arts in Society grant for a collaborative project with formerly unhoused adults – the project culminated in an exhibition and panel discussion where participants spoke publicly about their experience.

The artist’s work has been written about on NPR’s Colorado Public Radio, Westword, Art Maze Mag, Denver Life Magazine, 303 Magazine, Emboss Magazine, Artifactoid, Art Houston Magazine, The Colorado Sun, ABC 7News Denver, Harper’s Bazaar, the Houston Chronicle, 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.