Emily Prince

Portland State University MFA Monday Night Lecture Series

Emily Prince is a recent graduate of Stanford University, and a post graduate candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. Most notably, Prince's ongoing project entitled American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (but Not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor the Afghans) was recently featured in the 52nd International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, curated by Rob Storr. A work in progress, Prince offers a detailed rendering of the human cost of the United States' intervention into the Middle East. To date, the project is comprised of over 4000 hand-drawn portraits of the American service men and women who have lost their lives in the conflict.

Raised in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Prince was enveloped by the forest, and artifacts left behind by the Native Americas who once inhabited the land. She grew to recognize the relationship these original inhabitants had with their environment and sought to preserve the memory of their legacy. In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2006), Prince hand-embroidered the portraits of five Native American chiefs in an attempt to familiarize herself with a significant aspect of American history which was largely absent from her formal education.

In her earliest project Familiar (2004), Prince created a detailed portrait of her home. She had recently moved into an apartment in which her husband resided for thirteen years and she wanted to deepen her acquaintance with her immediate surroundings. Through a series of drawings, Prince catalogued many of the different objects in the apartment, all the lamps, all the pots and pans, all the containers on the top of the fridge, all the images of American history, and so on. The next exhibitions for Emily Prince will include The Saatchi Collection, the Wanas Foundation in Sweden.

Portland State University's Art Department offers free public lectures every Monday night of the school year. This is the thirteenth lecture in the PMMNLS for this season. The PSU MFA Monday Night Lecture Series is supported in part by PICA, Reed College, PNCA, Lewis and Clark College, PSU's Department of International Studies, and Ben Rosenberg Studio. If you or your organization are interested in becoming a supporter of the lecture series please let us know.

View the complete list of upcoming lectures.