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Biography

Emilie Houssart is a Dutch American artist and curator based in New York's Hudson Valley. Her projects explore physical and psychic legacies of colonizer culture around food and land. Through absurdist performance works and living installations at public sites, she ruptures normalized experiences, creating space to collaboratively reimagine success and thriving.

With The DIRT Project, Houssart leads experiential, collaborative workshops for all ages that invite play with earth, linguistics and identity, nurturing our relationships with invisible life forms inside the body and underfoot.

Houssart's shifting monument Columbian X-change iii was installed at Swale House on Governor's Island, NYC for six months in 2023, as part of Creature Conserve's (Re)imagining Conservation: From the Ground Up, curated by Heather McMordie. Her 15-month evolving installation Co-co-codac! was part of Owning Earth at Unison Arts Center, NY, an outdoor exhibit of twenty artists exploring relationships with land, curated by Tal Beery. Previous projects include interactive installation DIRTdoors for Rooted: Art + Land with the Dorsky Museum/Walkill Valley Land Trust, New Paltz, NY; Forest Geometries (solo installation and performance), Frans Masereel Centrum/Koningsbos forest, Belgium; Damaged Goods (solo), Norwich Millennium Library, UK; and If We Opened People Up We’d Find Landscapes, Fairhurst Gallery, UK. Houssart was a Swale House, NYC resident in 2023 and a 2022 Art-in-Education papermaking resident at Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY. As 2021 Artist in Residence at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, NY, she curated the exhibition DIRT: Inside Landscapes and led a series of interactive community projects disrupting barriers between the museum, the public and the surrounding land. Previous residencies include Frans Masereel Centrum, Belgium and Print to the People, UK. She is co-curator of experimental project an/aesthetics: Rosekill at Rosekill Art Farm, NY. 

Originally from Norwich, UK, Houssart gained a BA Hons. in Modern Languages from the University of Durham, UK, and studied figurative drawing, painting and sculpture for three years at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, Italy. After twelve years of solo studio practice in London and Austin, TX, she relocated to the Hudson Valley and completed an MFA in Sculpture with Printmaking with Honors at SUNY New Paltz in 2022. Houssart joined Unison Arts, New Paltz, NY as Artistic Director in 2023. She is Adjunct Professor of Art, Sustainability Faculty Fellow and member of experimental collective Eddy at SUNY New Paltz. Houssart has taught at Vassar College, Woodstock School of Art, Fall Kill Print Works, West Point Military Academy and Charles H. Cecil Studios, and has led classes and workshops in sculpture, drawing, painting and printmaking since 2003.

Current & upcoming:

Ordinary Alchemy opens at the Kleinert/James Center for the Arts at Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY, on January 20th, 2024, 4-6pm. Artists: Hayoon Jay Lee, Doug Navarra and Xuewu Zheng. Curated by Emilie Houssart. Show dates Jan 13 - Feb 25. 

Selected shows

2024

Ordinary Alchemy, curator, Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild, Woodstock, NY (catalogue)

2023

Metabolism of Cities, curated by Margaret Boozer, Urban Soils Institute at LMCC Arts Center, NY

The DIRT Project, installation at Hortus Arboretum with Habitat for Artists, Stone Ridge, NY

Columbian X-change iii, in (Re)Imagining Conservation: From The Ground Up, curated by Heather McMordie, Creature Conserve with the Urban Soils Institute, Swale House, Governor's Island, NYC

Nine Printmakers, Poughkeepsie Underwear Factory, Poughkeepsie, NY 

an/aesthetics: Rosekill, co-curator with Michael Asbill, Lital Dotan and Marielena Ferrer, Rosekill Art Farm, Kingston, NY

2022

Metabolism of Cities, curated by Margaret Boozer, Urban Soils Institute at LMCC Arts Center, NY

an/aesthetics: Rosekill, co-curator with Michael Asbill, Lital Dotan and Marielena Ferrer, Rosekill Art Farm, Kingston, NY

Paper as Form, curated by Sariah Park, Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Narrowsburg, NY

2021     

House Suit, live performance for Transient Shelters, Glasshouse ArtLifeLab, New Paltz, NY

DIRTdoors at Nyquist-Harcourt Wildlife Sanctuary, New Paltz, NY for Rooted: Art + Land, Dorsky Museum with Wallkill Valley Land Trust, Hudson Valley Upstate Art Weekend

Rescue Garden, Habitat for Artists microresidency at ArtPort Kingston, Kingston, NY

Co-co-codac! for Owning Earth, curated by Tal Beery, Unison Arts Center, New Paltz, NY (through Oct 2022), (catalogue)

DIRT: Inside Landscapes, Guest Curator, interactive show and community projects, Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY

2020    

Fragments of a New Reality, Rotunda Gallery, SUNY New Paltz, NY

EARTHBOUND, co-curator with Hayoon Jay Lee, pop-up show, 1110 2nd Ave, Suite 200, NYC

2019     

Saturnalia (solo), co-curator with Andrés San Millán, interactive with Parade of Lights costumes made by community volunteers, Cunneen-Hackett Theater Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY

Forest Geometries (solo with performance), Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium

Environment, Process, Meditation, Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium

PRINTFEST 2019, IPCNY at 550 W. 29th St, NYC

Sanctuary (Walmart Forest) (solo), Rotunda Gallery, SUNY New Paltz, NY

Potatocube, various locations, Hudson Valley, NY

New Skin, Old Ceremonies, Old Shoe Factory Social Club, St. Mary's Works, Norwich, UK

If We Opened People Up We'd Find Landscapes, Fairhurst Gallery, Norwich, UK

EXPORT 2019, co-curator with Xuewu Zheng, Trolley Barn, Poughkeepsie, NY (catalogue)

The Flip Side, curated by Monica Church, Palmer Gallery, Vassar College, NY

2018     

Damaged Goods (solo), Norfolk & Norwich Millennium Library, Norwich, UK

Paperplay, (duo) with Xuewu Zheng, Arts Mid-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY

Catalytics II, co-curator with Xuewu Zheng, Arts Mid-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY

2017     

Catalytics, co-curator with Xuewu Zheng, Arts Mid-Hudson, Poughkeepsie, NY

100! Women Artists Celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Women's Suffrage, curated by Bibiana Matheis, Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY

Carrot Flag for 32-Hour Projects, Art Centro, Poughkeepsie, NY

2016     

We Are Here, curated by Xuewu Zheng, Art Centro, Poughkeepsie, NY

Portraits 16, curated by Florence Northcutt, Howland Cultural Center, Beacon, NY

Trolley Barn, photography exhibition, Art Centro, Poughkeepsie, NY

2014     

Just Women / Just Drawing, curated by Bibiana Matheis, Mid-Hudson Heritage Center, Poughkeepsie, NY

Beekman Street Artist Banners, juried, public two-year installation, Beacon, NY

The Print Show, juried, Woodstock School of Art, Woodstock, NY

2013     

Day of the Dead Contemporary, 385 Main St, Poughkeepsie, NY

Nucleus, Art Centro, Poughkeepsie, NY

The Carrot Show, Pump Project, Austin, TX
The Drawing Show, Pump Project, Austin, TX

2012     

Cantanker: THE END, juried catalog and show, Big Medium, Austin, TX (catalogue)
Intaglio, Lithography and Silkscreen from Slugfest Printmaking Workshop, Jonathan Abrams Art Gallery, Albuquerque, NM
SLUGFEST, Stars of Austin Gallery, Austin Bergstrom Airport, TX
The Drawing Show, Pump Project, Austin, TX
The People's Gallery, juried show, City Hall, Austin, TX

2007     

Guest Artist, Norwich Art Now, Norwich Fringe, UK

2006     

Gang of Four, St. Margaret's Church, Norwich, UK

2003     

Solo show, Maddermarket Theatre, Norwich, UK

 

Residencies

2023

Habitat for Artists Microresidency, Hortus Arboretum, Stone Ridge, NY

Creature Conserve / Urban Soils Institute at Swale House, Governor's Island, NYC

2022

Art-in-Education Resident Artist, Women's Studio Workshop, Rosendale, NY

2021

Artist in Residence, Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY

2019

Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee, Belgium

2018

Print To The People, Norwich, UK 

Education

State University of New York at New Paltz, MFA, 2022

Charles H. Cecil Studios, Florence, Italy 2002-04 (scholarship awards), 2005-06

University of Durham, UK, BA Hons., 1998-2002

 

Teaching

 

Emilie is currently an Instructor at SUNY New Paltz, the Woodstock School of Art, NY and at Fall Kill Print Works, Poughkeepsie, NY. She has taught classes and workshops internationally since 2003, including at Vassar College, NY, West Point Military Academy, NY, Charles H. Cecil Studios, Italy, and the British Institute of Florence, Italy. Emilie teaches private classes and workshops for adults, from beginners to advanced students.

Student Work (password protected)

CV and resumé available upon request.

 

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