Emma McIntyre

Emma McIntyre (b. 1990) creates vivid abstractions imbued with chromatic and gestural energy. Instinctual yet deeply considered, her canvases explore painting’s material and alchemical possibilities. Employing oils and unconventional substances, she pairs chance-based, intuitive processes with a repertoire of motifs and compositional strategies gleaned from a close study of art history—reformulating these divergent threads into a fresh and unbridled mode of painting that is uniquely her own.

McIntyre was born in Auckland, New Zealand. After graduating from Auckland University of Technology in 2011, she received an MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, in 2016 and a second MFA from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 2021. In 2019 she received a Fulbright Graduate Award. McIntyre is a founding board member of the cooperative gallery Coastal Signs, Auckland.

Recent solo exhibitions of McIntyre’s work include Aragonite and conchiolin, Château Shatto, Los Angeles (2026); Syllables in Oleander, Air de Paris, Paris (2025); Objects or Vapours, Coastal Signs, Auckland (2024); Pearl Diver, Château Shatto, Los Angeles (2023); Madonna of the Pomegranate, Coastal Signs, Auckland (2022); Up bubbles her amorous breath, Air de Paris, Paris (2022); and Heat, Mossman Gallery, Wellington (2020).

In 2023, work by the artist was included in L’Almanach 23, the fourth edition of the biennial held at Le Consortium, Dijon, France.

An echo, a stain, a solo exhibition of McIntyre’s work, was held at David Zwirner New York in 2023. The following year, David Zwirner announced representation of the artist. In 2025, the solo exhibition Among my swan was presented at David Zwirner Hong Kong, and in 2026, an exhibition of new work by McIntyre, This body holds / swamp stuff, was on view at the gallery’s Tribeca location in New York.

McIntyre lives and works in Los Angeles.