Emily Davis Adams is a visual artist dedicated to representational painting as a tool for critical thought. Her most recent work consists of fragmented views of female representation. The subjects range from ancient Egyptian and Greek statuary to neoclassical and contemporary sculpture to humanoid robots and artificial intelligence-generated imagery. The paintings explore thematic and normalized versions of the female body, including the idealized woman as well as the demonized and the grotesque. Presented as a body of work, images of Pandora, Galatea, Medusa and Nefertiti exist alongside the female body and female characters as seen through the lens of cutting-edge technologies and other contemporary artists, suggesting relationships and influences across a broad history of western ideation regarding the female sex.
Adams attended UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture and UC Berkeley where she studied in both the Department of Art Practice and the College of Natural Resources. She received a BS from UC Berkeley in the interdisciplinary major, society and environment, and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art in New York City, where she was also awarded the 2011 Postgraduate Fellowship. Her work has been reviewed in several publications including the Los Angeles Times and Artillery Magazine. She has taught at Queens College in New York City, Sonoma State University and Stanford University, among others. She is currently based in the Bay Area.