EMILY SHEPARD: A LUMINOUS CURRENT
March 14 – April 19, 2025
Artists’ Reception: Saturday, March 15, 3 – 5 pm
Artists’ Talk: Saturday, March 22, 4 -5 pm
Oakland Art Murmur / First Friday: April 4, 5 – 9 pm
Drawing inspiration from her practice as a year-round swimmer in the San Francisco Bay, Emily Shepard creates richly layered works that explore states of presence, a search for wholeness and embodied understanding. Her process involves deconstructing and reassembling painted and drawn elements, choreographing them into compositions that pulse with authentic gestures and vital energy.
“Like submerging into cold water, in making art I surrender to sensation,” says Shepard. “I wade into an internal landscape and give form to what’s present, whether it’s uncomfortable, luminous, or an anxious struggle.”
The physicality of Shepard’s work exists in a balance with its vulnerability. Marking and painting on paper, joining elements with thread, tacking layers in place, she creates surfaces that speak to impermanence and fragility. These materials echo experiences of exposure— whether swimming in harsh conditions or facing abrupt health challenges—Shepard transforms moments of uncertainty into gateways of deep presence. The resulting works ground both artist and viewer in an immediate, embodied experience.
Gallery
Available Work
Emily Shepard
Emily Shepard is a Bay Area painter, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She earned her MFA with distinction from the California College of the Arts where she received the Barclay Simpson Award. She has shown her work locally and nationally, including the Crocker–Kingsley Exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. Currently she has three pieces on exhibit in “Voices without Boundaries” at the Sasse Museum of Art in Pomona, CA. Shepard is a Kipaipai Fellow and member of the artist-run gallery, Mercury 20 in Oakland, CA. Her work is included in private and corporate collections. Shepard swims year round without a wetsuit in the San Francisco Bay. The practice of cold-water swimming focuses her senses, challenges her will, and informs her art.