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EMMA SHER
Emma Sher
b. 1998

B.A. UCLA 2021
Based in Los Angeles, CA
From Oak Park, IL

Emma Sher is an Los-Angeles based ceramicist and a 2021 UCLA graduate. The current objective of her work comes from a curiosity about the human desire to make sense of the world around us through spirituality, religion, and alternate ways of knowing. Through ceramic form with the incorporation of lighting, textiles, and glass, her work explores symbolism, spirituality, and play.

Her recent body of work, Fairy Gardens, is inspired by summers in her childhood spent building fairy houses in the woods. In this series she revisits this childhood wonder and presence in the moment by creating environments of porcelain and mohair within wooden frames. When searching for fairy houses in the woods, one must be intensely present in the moment, curious, and exploring as if through the mind of a child. Peeking into miniature caves, getting eye level with the moss, imagining jumping across lilly pads – revisiting the ways she engaged with nature as a child. The mysticism of engaging in childlike ways of seeing into adulthood influences her ceramic and sculptural practice. This search for meaning in nature, even the lighthearted way of communing with fairy houses, speaks to the human need to study existence, identity, consciousness, and meaning.

Emma believes that interactive art has the capacity for social change. As a form of resistance against the attention economy, her collaborative work encourages her community to be present in the moment and make slowly. In her Here, Now series, participants make small tokens that she assembles into a larger kinetic mobile. Swaying gently in the breeze, the movement of the mobile may take a viewer out of the dialogue in their head for just a moment when its movement catches their eye – creating another moment of mindfulness.

In her practice, Emma aims to create work that invites the viewer to reflect on the diverse ways humans seek meaning through religious and spiritual belief systems, and to evoke a sense of nostalgia through aesthetics of her childhood play with fairies.



Education
UCLA, 2021
World Arts & Cultures B.A.
Art History Minor
Dean’s Honor Roll 2017–2021

Residencies
Hambidge Center
Rabun Gap, GA February 2024
High Desert Test Sites
Joshua Tree, CA, February 2023

Awards
SEED Scholarship, April 2022
A-B Projects Studio Session

Projects
Seder Plate
Judaica Standard Time
PLAY: A Creative Exploration into the Necessity of Play in AdulthoodMultimedia art book explores 'play' as a tool for survival, healing, and resistance
Exhibitions
 Rêve d été
Artemis LA, Topanga Canyon, CA, July–August 2023
Lamp Show!
Spore Space, Ojai, CA July–September 2023
UCLA Senior Showcase
UCLA Arts, Los Angeles, CA, June 2021

Work Experience
Faculty Instructor
Otis College of Art & Design Extension
June 2023 – Present
Studio Manager
Ben Medansky
April 2022 – Present
Projects Assistant
A-B Projects
August 2022 – February 2024
Teaching Artist
The Pottery Studio
October 2022 – February 2024
Los Angeles, CA
Running on Cargo