Emily Van Engel

Environmental issues have felt personal and urgent for Emily Van Engel from the day she understood the gravity of global warming as a pre-teen. By using air pollution to paint commonly experienced moments, she shows how many facets of our lives are intertwined with irreversible environmental destruction.

Most of us either don’t see the pollution that builds in our industrialized world, or we generally try to ignore the unsustainable aspects of how we live. However, her paintings — where all of the pigment comes from air pollution sediment gathered in her neighborhood from window ledges, highway underpasses, and parking garages — ask us to do the opposite. The materials highlight daily toxins that we breathe without fanfare. Her lack of control over the paint mirrors how we let pollution run uncontrolled in our environment.

The imagery that she explores touches on themes of transit, energy, future generations and changing weather patterns. Each piece asks: what are the hidden consequences of our industrial outputs, who suffers, what needs to change, and, she hopes, where might we look for solutions.

Van Engel was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey and currently lives in Oakland, California. She received a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University, a BFA in Painting from California College of the Arts and an MFA in Pictorial Art from San Jose State University. She completed a glass artist residency at the Bay Area Bullseye Projects Resource Center in the summer of 2016.