In her new paintings Sarah Emerson delivers us to an enchanted storybook forest, a place in the imagination where deer are the chief protagonists of charmed and enigmatic dramas. Drawing from reference sources that range from hunting magazines to Disney, Emerson couches these tales in the bright, clear vocabulary of pop, working in a style that blends crisp drawing with fresh, flat color. There is an innocent wonder at work in these paintings as well as a seductive and deceptive simplicity. With great sophistication Emerson delineates form and orchestrates color into these highly resolved paintings. Though her paintings are depictions of an idealized world filled with dreamy color and exuberant vegetation, it is by no means a perfect one. Hovering at the edges of these works are intimations of suffering and mortality which layer the poignancy of experience into these vividly playful and bucolic scenes. The clarity and directness of Sarah Emerson's paintings draw us along into her fantasy forest and enliven the deeper considerations of the cycles of life that they suggest. Elaborating on her recycling and reimaginings of images derived from hunting culture she has stated an "intention...to look past the camouflage and into the expanse where we seek the trophy or souvenir of something majestic. In this case the work becomes part of a commentary on the desire to contain something natural in a culture where environments are created to resemble a vague memory of the real."

Educated in London, Boston, and Atlanta, Sarah Emerson has exhibited in Europe and in the United States, most recently at White Columns, NYC and Real Art Ways in Hartford, CT. Her work is in numerous public and private collections including the Progressive Corporation Collection. This is her first solo exhibition at Metaphor.