Emma Kohlmann, "When I am home I think about how it can be anything with green and yellow butterflies”, 2020; Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Print

Each print of When I am Home I Think About How It Can Be Anything With Green and Yellow Butterflies is a unique work. The artist has hand-embellished each print to include different elements such as gold or silver leaf or additional watercolor elements making each piece a unique work of art. Emma Kohlmann (b. 1989, Bronx, NY) created the piece around the idea that the concept of home is arbitrary. 

“A home can be a feeling or a season, it doesn’t necessarily mean a domain or place of residence. I personally feel really unattached when it comes to my domestic life. I think about how I make homes in a lot of places that would normally not be considered a “home”. I think about how many of us do not have the physical manifestation of a home, but still find it in some capacity. I made this work pre-pandemic, I reflect back on how valuable it is to see the idea of domain within oneself not only in property.” - Emma Kohlmann

Kohlmann makes paintings primarily in ink and watercolor, often depicting figures that abstract the nude body out of the traditional male canon and into a visual language that collapses gender binaries and upholds tenderness and affection. Often drawing from feminist theory, Kohlmann sees the body as the site of politics.  Her playful style takes bodily forms and reimagines them in abstract and unexpected ways, challenging notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. Kohlmann’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally in addition to publishing her own artist’s books, zines and made various record covers for music labels.