POWERFUL & VULNERABLE
SEPTEMBER 2024
Los Angeles-based artist Emily Ferguson creates powerful work inspired by music, cinema, art history, and her own life. Her art blends femininity and emotion, depicting confident women with both strength, vulnerability and grace, providing a universally impactful yet intimately personal experience.
Emily Ferguson photographed by Chris Black.
Before becoming a full-time artist, you did some modeling. How did you get into it?
As a teenager, I was scouted and signed by a small modeling agency in Los Angeles. I also worked at the grocery store Trader Joe’s as a sign artist and clerk for six years while modeling, doing whatever it took to afford a workspace and materials. I didn't have anything and that was a means to an end.
Modeling is often seen as glamorous. How was your personal experience with it?
I never liked it. I tried to get myself to want that but it never felt right. The best part about it though was meeting really wonderful people. It really got me out of my bubble and made me feel less shy. I was meeting all different types of people and that was really empowering to me, not the act of getting my photo taken, I didn't care about that.
What do you say to people calling you a “hot girl painting trope”?
I feel like it's inescapable, but I can't change my face or who I am, so I wish people focused less on looks—they don't mean much to me. For artists, I think it can be beautiful to know more about the person behind the paintings. I see it as an opportunity to show who I am even though I don't like being in the spotlight. So it's a complex balance.
"I had a copper IUD for six years which broke off and lodged into my uterus [...] It had a big impact on me, making me very aware of my body and what I could and couldn’t control while making this work."
Emily Ferguson for Playboy Magazine Netherland
'Self Portrait', 2023, courtesy of Emily Ferguson & Half Gallery.
Your self-portraits represent a significant shift in your work. How has this vulnerability impacted your art?
The first self-portrait was completely unintended on my part. When I was making the show for Half gallery, I was feeling really stuck and I remember looking at one of Alice Neel’s books - I love her work - and I saw her self portrait, it just started from there. This felt incredibly vulnerable and difficult for me, but I wanted to infuse the work with deeper personal emotion. Initially, I had doubts about it when I finished the piece, but I decided to include it in the show. The response to it was incredible! I was blown away. I don't think it had anything to do with the physicality of myself but more that people saw an emotion in it and a rawness that I hadn't tapped into before. I see it as an out of body experience. It really encouraged me to strip things down, to look at things simply and honestly.
Do you remember the emotions you felt while creating this work?
While making that first work, I actually had this very traumatic experience. I had a copper IUD for six years which broke off and lodged into my uterus and I had to have it removed. All of a sudden I was part of the 1% of women for whom something goes wrong. I was dealing with medical bills, I had just moved into a new house and it was all really stressful. It had a big impact on me, making me very aware of my body and what I could and couldn’t control while making this work.
'Merkin Study', 2024, courtesy of Emily Ferguson & Nicodim.
Your merkin painting in your latest exhibition at Nicodim gallery is a bold statement about beauty standards and female sexuality. How do you see this piece fitting into your body of work?
I got inspired by watching John Galliano’s Martin Margiela fashion show over and over. Even though Galliano is a controversial figure, the show’s aesthetics were incredible. It felt like a revival of couture, elevating fashion to art in a way we hadn't seen in a long time. I'm a huge vintage lover and definitely a NorCal girl (from Northern California) at heart, sometimes I don't shave my armpits or legs, so the idea of reclaiming body hair in a feminine way felt really cool to me! Also merkins (pubic wig) have been around for hundreds of years and are kind of grotesque. They were used by sex workers to cover lice and meet beauty standards of the time, where pubic hair was a significant part of attractiveness. I just loved playing with these ideas!
Your paintings often depict women who exude confidence. How do you define confidence?
II believe confidence is trusting your intuition. It's nothing to do with looks or career or anything like that at all. You can sense the confidence in the women in my paintings through the lives they lead and the spaces they inhabit. They trust and believe in themselves, which to me, defines a confident woman. It's really about standing by your own truths.
'Changeling', 2024, courtesy of Emily Ferguson & Nicodim Gallery.
Text by Lisa Boudet