‘What’s Fueling Art Star Emma McIntyre’s Big Year?’ by J. Cabelle Ahn
2025
Emma McIntyre paints abstractions that feel like warped-speed journeys through centuries of art. “I love making connections across history,” she said, speaking on Zoom from her Los Angeles studio in early November. Her colorful canvases layer gestures and motifs—including swans, flowers, and cranes—to create lush interiors charged with the gravity of the past. “I love how I can rush myself—and hopefully the viewer—through time by creating a chain of references that might move from a Greek myth straight to the present day.”
McIntyre pushes the material boundaries of painting in the process. The New Zealand–born artist is mainly known for her oxidation technique, achieved by applying a solution to an iron-based pigment that creates iron oxide (rust) on the surface of her works. “I was thinking about [Sigmar] Polke and where autonomy lies between the painter and the painting,” she explained. “I liked the idea that the rust would continue to change beyond my intervention.”
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