EMMA JUNE JONES

B. 2000, Chicago, IL 

Lives and works in New York, NY 

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My process begins with drawings, consisting of memories, relationships, fears and our environment. These sketches filter through into bigger ideas with oil paint, that remain my central to my way of communicating these narratives. Most of which are commentaries on our effects to each environments through consumption, social class, pollution, influence and how our environment is shifted to shape us. My work allows portraiture a place to be playful, yet convoluted by our own destruction.   ​

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Centered around figures are ideas about the absorbing landscape of social norms and trends, political boundaries, and the anxieties of living in a warming environment. Animals in the work act as emotional surrogates, mirroring the figures' desires or threats. Objects function as indicators of environments and suggest what has happened or what is about to. Clothing and fashion become psychological armor, all to signal performance and unraveling identity. 

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My work has been presented in a range of group exhibitions across New York and beyond, including Intimate Structures at FLOHAUS Gallery (2026), What Rain Tells You at Flowing Space Gallery (2025), and My Need for Tender Loving Care at All Street Gallery (2024), among others. Earlier presentations include Just Like Heaven at Random Access Gallery and Sanctuary at Galerie Shibumi. These exhibitions reflect an ongoing engagement with narrative figuration and evolving psychological space within contemporary painting.