Emily A. Baker is an artist and researcher based in Atlanta, Georgia. With a BFA in Interior Design from California State University, Chico, and an MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Baker has exhibited work nationally and internationally. Residencies include Salem Art Works, The Vermont Studio Center, The Steel Yard, and The Santa Fe Art Institute and Penland’s Winter Residency. In 2022, her work was presented at the International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art in Berlin, Germany. She received an exploratory research grant from the Hagley Museum & Library supported research into DuPont’s contribution to the textile industry, specifically the rebirth of nylon’s image post-WWII. In 2024, she held her first international solo exhibition at ProjeckTraum FN in Friedrichshafen, Germany. She is a recent recipient of the 2024 Reed Fink Award in Southern Labor History at the Southern Labor Archives, Georgia State University Library, the 2025 Nexus Fund from Atlanta Contemporary. She now is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia.
Artist Statement:
Baker’s work studies manufacturing industries and honors the industrial past while actively re-envisioning who is included in its future. By investigating the worker’s role in relation to automation, technology, and trade, her work bridges gaps between materials, industries, and bodies, fostering a deeper connection to the products we use and the journeys they have taken. Centered on identity, repair, and retroactive healing—both within the body and of place—she expands upon the fragility of industry alongside the economic and seismic shifts shaping the future of work.
