Passage Print

Gregg Emery was born and raised in Bombay, NY, a small rural community alongside the Mohawk reserve that straddles the border of the U.S. and Canada. After completing an apprenticeship at the Fabric Workshop in Philadelphia and completing graduate work at the Maryland Institute, College of Art, Emery worked in the mountains of Japan to assist in the construction of a house and art studios for a residence program there. For the past 20 years, Emery has called New York City his home. He maintains a studio in Bushwick, Brooklyn while living and teaching on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. He is the Head of Visual Arts & Art History at the Trinity School, a prestigious K-12 independent school where he also teaches painting and drawing. Emery continues a practice of drawing people for himself and for several venues around the New York and abroad. Most notably, for the Poetry Brothel, an interactive, immersive theater experience that started in New York and is now featured in 26 cities worldwide. He has been the ‘official painter’ in New York since 2014 (which tours up and down the east coast) and has appeared in shows in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Rejkyavik, LA, Austin and San Diego. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Poetry Society of New York. The past couple of years have been particularly strong for Emery as he has received critical acclaim for exhibits around the globe. From Brussels to Beijing and back again. Emery has traveled extensively for inspiration and to exhibit his work, most notably a residency and a solo show in Beijing in 2017. Since that time, Emery was commissioned and completed an 8,000 sq ft mural around a pool on Roosevelt Island that was featured in Time Out NY, the Gothamist and was listed by The New York Post as one of the top ‘instragrammable places of the summer.’ Notably, Emery was selected to exhibit in the 10th Annual Governors Island Art Fair, dubbed by the New York Times as the Art Fair of the 99%. From there it was off to Brussels and the Cube Art Fair, where his paintings could be viewed alongside the work of Chuck Close and other American greats. This past year Emery’s work was featured at Scope Art Fair during Miami Art Basel week and was also shown in Art New York at Pier 94 in the previous spring. Lastly, they also appeared prominently in Season 2 of the widely acclaimed TV Show, ‘The Last O.G.