Description
2023
Glazed porcelain tile in oil-sealed poplar artist’s frame
5.5 x 10.5 x 0.5 in (glazed tile is 2 x 2 in)
Notes on “Early to Bed”: The tile is embedded in the frame as if it’s slowly sinking into the wood surface, which itself is sanded out around the square to mimic folds in cloth. The painted image shows a smiling, sleeping figure, snug under a thick purple quilt speckled with red and black spots. This pattern matches a lone poppy blooming on the corner windowsill against the matte black sky. There is a hanging keyhole and signature window on the back of the frame.
Em Kettner (b. 1988, Philadelphia, PA) is an artist and writer based in Richmond, CA. In her mixed-media sculptures, figures playfully merge with each other and their environment. She returns to motifs like the hybrid body and the bedridden body, and works in miniature to reference votive and venerated objects. Her current series of glazed porcelain tiles focuses on “the bed” as a site for love, rest, sickness, and passage to the beyond. Kettner received a BFA from The University of the Arts, Philadelphia in 2011 and an MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2014. Recent solo exhibitions include “Sick Joke” at Chapter in New York, “Slow Poke” at François Ghebaly Gallery in Los Angeles, “Stepping Stones” at Specialist in Seattle, “Play the Fool” at Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago, and “The Eternal Worm” at Harpy in Rutherford, NJ. Her sculptures will be featured in the forthcoming exhibition, “Tender Loving Care: Contemporary Art from the Collection,” opening July, 2023, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. You can view more of Kettner’s works at the François Ghebaly Gallery and on her website.
