Emily Ezell

Emily Ezell (c. 1984) was born in Monroe, Louisiana. She has always been an artist interested in fantastical narrative that dissects archetypes and twists historical motifs. She was awarded a BFA in Studio Art from Louisiana Tech University in 2008 and an MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art in 2018.

Emily works full-time as a professional artist and educator. She is currently Assistant Professor of Painting at Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana.


Artist Statement

My apocalyptic swamps are littered with neon garbage, mutated animals, and corpse-like nymphs, creating imagery that can be read as initially provocative or even pastiche. A slow visual rotting of beauty is metastasized into a fecund slick of abstract skid marks of glimmering paint. I seek to create painted surfaces that extend the mystery of traditional realist technique into an uncanny valley of psychedelic pentimenti and optical succulence.

The mimesis of appropriated Old Masters such as Boucher and Rubens is a nod to the parasitic and parasympathetic relationship of contemporary pop surrealism with the Euro-centric Western canon. The paintings pivot between objects of desire and disease, much like all good Southern Gothic stories.
– EE, 2025


Instagram: @emilyezellstudio