Emma Steinkraus is an artist based in rural Virginia. Combining paintings with wallpapers, her practice distills complex research into a cohesive visual space, shifting the stories we tell about women, art history, and the natural world. Her current project, “Impossible Garden,” explores the lives of historical women artist-naturalists through paintings and wallpaper constructed out of their illustrations.

Stylistically, her work embraces many aesthetic elements associated with femininity. “My paintings are full of bows, ruffles, and pastel colors,” she explains. “Textiles, fashion, and interior design all exert clear influences. I am also interested in refashioning genres associated with versions of art history that excluded women. My work plays with and subverts historical modes of representation to assert the importance of women and nonhuman nature.”

See more from Emma Steinkraus below!