Bio

Emily Mackin (b. 2002) is an artist based in the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania whose practice aims to transform lived experience into abstract installations that draw on emotions rooted in moments of personal disempowerment. The malleability of materials in her work exposes moments of delicacy that are desecrated through process—an echoing of body and consciousnesses shaped, exhausted, and reused over time. Her discernment of the social hierarchies and constructions that conceal emotional and physical harm, implicating American collegiate organizations and their rituals, is a central vulnerability within her practice.

Uses of performance, wine, and found objects wire an intimacy within this relationship of harm, power, and memory. Mackin asks in the continued practice of her work, what fractures first — the symbol of disempowerment or the self trying to relinquish it? When harm hides in repetition, in the gestures embedded in social culture, how do we confront it? When social decorum conceals emotional betrayals, how can we trust the truth of our own experiences?

Mackin received a BA and Honors in Studio Art and English from Lafayette College in 2024. She has completed the Canopy Program in 2024-2025 with Amir H. Fallah's cohort and has been a visiting artist at Lafayette College's gardeHouse. Solo exhibitions include Duuude (Shoot Your Shot) at Lafayette College in Easton, PA. Recent group exhibitions include The Weight of What Was with the Canopy Program in Chelsea, NYC (June 2025).