Contributed by Will Maddoxx / Last summer, the New York Times reported that someone impersonated Lady Gaga to buy a painting of Emma Webster’s. The piece highlighted the market for these paintings and coincided with an impressive show at Petzel displaying two huge canvases at once grand and sublime. Seeing that “Rues and Leaves Themselves Alone” was opening so soon after that last show, I wondered whether the work would be rushed and uninventive. In fact, the new paintings are very good.
The show consists of 13 medium- and large-scale paintings, and a semi-interactive and plainly subordinate tour of Webster’s Blender creations (think Xbox Kinect). The imagery is peculiar but pleasant and the paintings are confidently rendered. Nothing about them seems labored, pained, or tedious. The brushstrokes are at once loose and specific, and you get the sense that the painter herself was having fun moving through each work.
Pale Bacchus was the first of the new paintings to grab me. The yellowed grays that make up the glossy skin of a calf-like horned animal move into vibrant oranges and sienna with remarkable subtlety. Green grays fill the foreground and dissolve into a dark background, as they would in a flash photo taken in a cave.
Nettles and Nectar in particular shows Webster’s range and virtuosity. It’s clearly akin to Inka Essenhigh’s surreal floral paintings, yet the eloquent curvilinear forms lean towards gestural abstraction. The lighting, again like a flash photograph, is stunning and immerses you in Webster’s sometimes explosive world. Her paintings are crafted with skill, precision, and care. At the same time, there’s an ease about them that suggests she’ll be able to keep it fresh.
“Emma Webster: Rues and Leaves Themselves Alone,” Petzel, 520 West 25th Street, New York, NY. Through June 6, 2026.
About the author: Will Maddoxx is a New York-based artist from Nashville.
I saw this show last Saturday. Unfortunately while she’s a wonderful painter, I found the works a little cold and distant . After reading how Webster uses technology as part of her creative process the technology seems to bleed through. The paintings are like a dream I can’t figure out but I’m sure I don’t want to occupy this space.