Overview
Having lost her father at the age of three, Lin Emery enrolled at Columbia University when she was sixteen years old. She attended Syracuse University, the University of Mexico, the University of Chicago, and the Sorbonne before the end of her undergraduate tenure. While in Paris, Emery studied sculpture under Russian artist Ossip Zadkine and began to cultivate her passion in that department. On returning to the United States, she learned welding and casting at the New York Sculpture Center. She eventually settled in New Orleans, where she repurposed her living space as a fully-equipped studio.
Emery's early work was largely figurative-as she created many life-size religious figures on commission for Southern churches-but the artist gradually began to focus on the physical support systems and welded armatures that held those figures together. After her abstract work experienced success in New Orleans and New York, she began to experiment heavily with motion. Emery describes her work as a dance, the choreography of each piece influencing the kinetic response of the next.
Awards
Mayorâs Award for Achievement in the Arts, New Orleans (1980)
Fellow, Virginia Center for Creative Arts (1981)
Interarts Grant, National Endowment for the Arts (1983)
Louisiana Women of Achievement Award (1984)
Sweet-Art Award, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans (1987)
Distinguished Louisiana Artist Award, NOCCA New Orleans (1988)
Lazlo Aranyi Award of Honor for Public Art (1990)
Delgado Society Award for Artistic Excellence (1997)
Osaka Prefecture, Japan: Grand Prize for Public Sculpture (1998)
Governorâs Arts Award, Louisiana (2001)
Young Leadership Council, New Orleans âRole Modelâ (2003)
Honorary Doctorate, Loyola University of the South Order of St. Lazarus (2004)
S. Simon Sculpture Award, National Academy Museum, NY (2005)
Opus Award, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, New Orleans (2012)
Selected Exhibitions
Sculpture Center, NY (1957, â62
New Orleans Museum of Art (1962, â64, 2013)
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (1964)
New York Worldâs Fair (1964)
Kouros Gallery, NY (1989, 2005, â06, 2011)
Arthur Roger Gallery (solo) (1990, â92, â95, â99, 2003, â05, â08, 2010, â12, â15)
Pensacola Museum of Art
Museums and Public Collections
Auburn University Museum of Fine Art, Auburn, AL
Brevard Art Museum, Melbourne, FL
Centennial Art Center, Nashville, TN
Centennial Art Museum, Corpus Christi, TX
Chattahoochee Valley Art Center, LaGrange, GA
Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC
Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE
Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME Fine Arts
Museum of the South, Mobile, AL
Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, MI
Grounds for Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ
Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, LA
Hunter Museum, Chattanooga, TN
Huntington Galleries of Art, Huntington, WV
J. Patrick Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, FL
Longue Vue Gardens, New Orleans, LA
Museum of Foreign Art, Sofia, Bulgaria
Museum of Outdoor Arts, Englewood, CO
National Academy of Design, New York, NY
National Collection of American Art, Washington, D.C.
New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA
Norton Galleries, West Palm Beach, FL
Pensacola Art Center, Pensacola, FL
Walter P. Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA
Weisman Collection, Los Angeles, CA