Portrait and cover photos by Jose Miguel Gomez-Pleitez

Emily Rose

2024–2027 BCA Studio Resident

2023 ACTivate Resident

Emily Rose is a Puerto Rican-American interdisciplinary multimedia artist. She is a descendant of self-emancipators, artisans, seamstresses, dancers, fisher people, and farmers. Her artwork addresses the legacy of colonialism and its impact on the Caribbean diaspora, particularly the transference of ancestral trauma. Born and raised in Mission Hill, MA and surrounded by her family’s blend of cultures, food, celebrations, and spiritual beliefs, Emily Rose infuses her lived experience and stories of her family and ancestors into her work. Throughout her wide-ranging multimedia practice, Emily Rose makes vivid and imaginative work that focuses on healing, memory, and home. Oral stories, historical documents, found objects, and textiles often appear throughout the artist’s paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations.

Awarded the 2023 ACTivate residency at the Boston Center for the Arts, Emily Rose exhibited her first iteration of El Salón: Reimagining Self-love, Rituals, and Healing in the Kitchen at the Boston Center for the Arts. In the fall of 2024, Emily Rose will install the first iteration of El Bembé: Celebrating Life and Death en la Sala (The Party: Celebrating Life and Death in the Living Room), part of her three-part recall memory series, Homecoming, during a residency at the Kala Art Institute. Upcoming residencies include the Studio Residency at the Boston Center for the Arts. Group exhibitions of her work included Jean McDonough Arts Center, REC’s YouthGROW Farm, Elevated Thought, ShowUp Inc., Essex Art Center, Stevens-Coolidge House and Garden, Copley Society of Art, The Umbrella Arts Center, Scollay Square Gallery, The Urbano Project, and the Boston Arts Academy. Publications of her work can be found in the Raandoom, Boston Art Review, and Artscope.

Among her accomplishments, Emily Rose was awarded the Opportunity Fund Grant, Wagner Impact Studio Award, Massachusetts Cultural Council Grants for Creative Individuals, Boston Media Arts Empowerment Award, Edward Mitchell Bannister National Exhibition: Celebrating BIPOC Artists, and the Copley Society of Art National Show: Crossing Borders Grant. Committed to making the Greater Boston area more equitable and inclusive for the arts, Emily Rose has partnered with the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture’s Office to serve on the Advisory Grant Team and the Cultural Advisory Team to strengthen grant making and community building efforts.

Emily Rose’s three-year BCA Studio Residency is supported by Wagner Foundation.

2023 ACTivate Residency Project Description

“El Salón: Reimagining Self-love, Rituals, and Healing in the Kitchen” is a multi-media installation centered on creating space for reflection, connection, and healing around identity, hair, and cultural haircare rituals. The project includes haircare rituals, memories from the artist’s family members, and commonly found objects in the kitchen. Accompanied by interviews from family members and sounds from her kitchen, the selected objects act as instruments to evoke new memories to reimagine self-love, acceptance, and healing. All of these elements together create an environment of auditory rituals activating one’s memories, senses, and connection between the sounds and mix-media installation.

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