Emma Kemp

Assistant Professor and Area Head, Creative Practice | Foundation

Education

Master of Fine Arts, Writing-Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Central Saint Martins, London

Bio and Affiliation

Emma Kemp is a writer and researcher working across disciplines. Originally from London, U.K., Kemp received her BA in Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL, and her MFA in Writing-Critical Studies from California Institute of the Arts, where she programs the CalArts’ Summer Institute Studio Residency. Kemp is an Assistant Professor at Otis College of Art & Design, serving as Area Coordinator for 2D and Contemporary Creative Practice.

In the spring of 2023, Kemp co-founded and was appointed director of Concerning Landscape/No Canyon Hills, a coalition and non-profit engaged with anti-colonial land conservation in Los Angeles. This work is an extension of the image-first research collaboration in Bakersfield initiated by Kemp and Mateo Altman.

Kemp's book, Blue Pool: Cecelia, in partnership with photographer JoAnn Walters and published by Image Text Ithaca, was shortlisted for the Aperture Photobook Awards 2018. Kemp organized and co-edited Astral Projection in Higher Ed (East of Borneo Books), a collection of notes from Art and Design educators compiled in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. She is currently represented by Frances Goldin Literary Agency.

Emma Kemp artwork: Out Past the Eye-Mark

Awards and Honors

Awards and Residencies

2021, Al Larvick National Grant
2020, Teaching Excellence Award, Otis College Art & Design
2020, Faculty Research and Development Grant, Otis College Art & Design
2019, Rethinking “Crit” in the Studio-Classroom (Research Grant)
2019, Ithaca New Voices Festival
2016-2018, Utah Humanities Foundation: Delmont R. Oswald Fellow
2016, Faculty Research and Development Grant California Institute of the Arts
2015, Image Text Ithaca Fellow, Ithaca College

Professional Accomplishments and Exhibitions:

Selected Exhibitions, Conferences and Events

2021, The Culture Journalist Podcast
2021, East of Borneo W/Fiona Connor & Tom Lawson, Printed Matter LAABF
2020, Now Instant w/ Laida Lertxundi
2019, AICAD conference, Los Angeles
2019, FATE conference, Ohio
2019, Future Ruins @ John Baldessari Gallery, CalArts
2019, iTi @ NYABF, NY
2019, Bytemarks @ Holiday
2018, Jan-May, Home Bodies, Away Teams, Museum Contemporary Art Utah
2017, Home Bodies, Away Teams, Blue Roof Studios, Los Angeles
2017, CalArts CSSSA Visiting Artist
2017, Soft Serve @ Family, Los Angeles
2017, Mystic Hyperstitians in the Heart of Empire, Indianapolis Museum Contemporary Art

Selected Publications

https://calarts.academia.edu/EmmaKemp
forthcoming, BARBARA (MS under consideration with Siglio Press, L.A.)
forthcoming, Our Modern Joy (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
2021, Bakersfield (Pool, Issue #6, Plant)
2021, Remote Control (EOB Editions) a collection of pedagogical texts commissioned, curated and edited for East of Borneo, L.A.
2021, “Out Past the Eye Mark” (X—TRA Mag)
2021, “When You Cut into the Present” (X—TRA Online)
2020, Urgency Reader Vol. 1 & 2 (Queer Archive Work)
2020, CloudKitchens Report (Bakersfield / LACA)
2018, Blue Pool Cecelia, (iTi Press)