FRESH PAINT
Emmi Whitehorse

For the seventh iteration of the collaborative FRESH PAINT exhibition series, the Parrish Art Museum and The FLAG Art Foundation are pleased to present work by artist Emmi Whitehorse (Diné, b. 1957 in Crownpoint, NM). For her FRESH PAINT presentation, Whitehorse has created a new diptych painting, titled Reseeding Chaco (2026), that will be exhibited for the first time at the Parrish.

Whitehorse’s atmospheric abstract paintings emerge from her experience of “the vastness of northern New Mexico, with the light of the sky above and the dark of the Earth below.” In her work, Whitehorse translates the high desert landscape into her distinctive approach to color and line; clouds of pigment intermingle with layers of hand-drawn symbols and abstract markings, the visual effect like deciphering forms through the depths of water or the haze of dust kicked up on a dirt road. “My visual symbology are ambiguous and created to be at once Illuminating and obscure,” Whitehorse explains, “Much like my memory, which comes back in bits and pieces.”

Whitehorse’s paintings reflect the Navajo worldview of Hózhó, which the artist describes as “a harmonious balance of beauty, nature, humanity, and the whole universe.” While her works evoke a sense of stillness, it is the fleeting and minute events of nature that speak to Whitehorse: ripples on water, insects moving across the ground, grasses shifting in the wind. The constellations of forms that emerge from and sink into her painted surfaces serve as a reminder of the transitory, ever-shifting nature of life.

Our interconnection with the non-human world also drives her work, as well as the politics of land use and the extractive processes of oil drilling and fracking, which have had historic and ongoing impact on Indigenous homelands in the Southwest. “What we do to the land comes back to us,” Whitehorse explains. “The calm and beauty that is in my work I hope serves as a reminder of what is underfoot, of the exchange we make with nature.”

FRESH PAINT is a rotating series of single-artwork exhibitions at the Parrish that spotlight new or rarely exhibited works by both emerging and established artists. By circumventing traditional exhibition planning timelines—which can extend years into the future—FRESH PAINT provides a platform for artists to promptly showcase freshly created artworks and ideas, allowing for a more direct response to current issues and cultural movements. This approach fosters a timelier dialogue between the Museum, visitors, and our surrounding community. Presented in the Parrish’s Creativity Lounge located in the Lobby, FRESH PAINT is open to the public at no charge during regular Museum hours. Each FRESH PAINT installation is also accompanied by a commissioned interpretative text by an invited author, critic, poet, or scholar.

FRESH PAINT: Emmi Whitehorse is organized by Scout Hutchinson, The FLAG Art Foundation Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Parrish Art Museum, in collaboration with Jon Rider, Director; Caroline Cassidy, Deputy Director; and Madeline DeFilippis, Exhibitions and Programs Manager, at FLAG.

Exhibition Support
FRESH PAINT: Emmi Whitehorse is made possible, in part, thanks to the generous support of The FLAG Art Foundation.

The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.

About Emmi Whitehorse
Born 1957 in Crownpoint, NM, Emmi Whitehorse is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation. She grew up in the region outside of Chaco Canyon, a natural environment that significantly informed the sense of time, place, and movement that would emerge in her mature work. From an early age, she also observed her grandmother weaving—a process that encompassed not only working at the loom, but also harvesting wool from the family’s flock and creating natural dyes from plants. Her grandmother’s weavings introduced the young artist to the concept of creating depth within a planar surface.

Whitehorse went on to attend the University of Mexico, where she earned a BA in Painting (1980) and an MA in Printmaking and Art History (1982). While at school, she studied with artist Harmony Hammond (American, b. 1944) and became a member of the Grey Canyon Group alongside fellow artists like Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith (Citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation, 1940–2025) and Conrad House (Diné and Oneida, 1956–2001)—experiences that affirmed her use of abstraction to convey her relationship to land.

Whitehorse’s work has been the subject of dozens of museum and gallery presentations since 1979. Solo exhibitions have been held at the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, CO (2006); Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE (2001); Tucson Museum of Art, AZ (1997); and The Wheelwright Museum, Santa Fe, NM (1991). Recent national and international group exhibitions include La Biennale di Venezia: Stranieri Ovunque – Strangers Everywhere, Venice, Italy (2024); The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. (2023–2024); Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2019–2022); and Modern Times – Kunst der Indianischen Moderne und Postmoderne, Galerieverein Leonberg, Germany (2011). Her work is held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; Denver Art Museum, CO; Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ; Montclair Art Museum, NJ; Tucson Museum of Art, AZ; Westfalisches Museum, Munster, Germany; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among many others. She continues to live and work in Santa Fe, NM.

About The FLAG Art Foundation
The FLAG Art Foundation is a non-collecting, nonprofit exhibition space that mounts solo, two-person, and thematic group exhibitions centering on emerging and established artists from around the globe. Organized by a diverse community of curators and thinkers within and beyond the art world, FLAG opened to the public in 2008 and has staged over 100 exhibitions celebrating the work of nearly 1,000 artists. Committed to providing education and resources for its surrounding community, and across New York City, all exhibitions and programs—including artist talks, artist-led workshops, and guided tours for school and museum groups—are free and open to the public.

The FLAG Art Foundation was founded by Glenn Fuhrman, an art patron and philanthropist, alongside his wife Amanda, a Co-Founder of The Fuhrman Family Foundation. Fuhrman is a Trustee of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, New York, NY; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and The Tate Americas Foundation, New York, NY; and is a Board Member of The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, PA. He is also a Board Member of the 92nd Street Y, New York, NY, and The Central Park Conservancy, New York, NY.