Artist Statement
I am interested in creative funk - a spark, a download, the delight of energy taking shape into weird, silly, beautiful and sometimes grotesque form.
I am curious about the truth that lies beneath social contracts and about raw energy - generative and destructive - how it shows up when it is tended to and when it is not. I explore body sovereignty through the lens of marginalized identities and I am trying to find reprieve from the subtractive nature of performance and our world’s preoccupation with status, consumption and violence.
More and more, my work is integrating themes of animism, quantum mechanics and entanglement, cosmology, alchemy and panentheism. I want my work to challenge me and to antagonize unconscious living. I am looking for connection to something deeper, a universal truth to feel confronted or comforted by and I hope the viewer recognizes something in my work.
-James Emmett
Artist Bio
James Emmett (he/they) is a multi-disciplinarian trans artist.
James (born 1978) lived and worked in Chicago from 2005 until late December of 2024. He/they co-owned a pet boutique in Chicago’s Northside neighborhood, Andersonville from 2012 to 2020, in September of 2020 he sold the business to pursue his art practice full time. In April of 2022, James began painting, and since, painting, found object sculpture and writing has become his primary focus.
James’ work investigates existentialism, confronts transphobic ideology, explores the subconscious, the emotional complexities of interpersonal dynamics, what it means to struggle in a transactional and consumptive culture and the inherent beauty that exists despite reductive value systems. Never one to follow the beaten path, James Emmett attempts to queer his/their life in every way and works to antagonize unconscious living.
James Emmett, now in his mid 40’s, has long rejected the exclusiveness of pedigree, traditional academic pursuits and conforming to societal standards. A student of life, leaving community college after one month at the age of 19 to pursue lessons outside of the classroom, James continues to grow his proficiencies in the spirit of a little intuition, curiosity, drive, practice, a smidge of google and an occasional online course.
James Emmett moved to Western Massachusetts in 2025 and stills pursues his full time art practice.