Emily Zuch is an observational painter who works from elaborate set-ups in her studio. Emily was granted a Fulbright Research and Study award in Painting and Printmaking to Germany in 2015, where she was an artist in residence at the theater Lindfels Westflugel She received a BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2008 and an MFA from New York Studio School in 2011.Emily has participated in solo and group exhibitions in the US and abroad and received grants such as the Hohenberg Travel Award. Emily has attended art residences including Yaddo, Jentel Foundation, the Woodstock Byrdckiffe Guild, Kummel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, and Chautauqua. Emily Zuch (@emilyzuch) is a painter and adjunct professor living in Brooklyn, NY. She started teaching at BMCC in 2019, and also teaches at Pratt Institute and Wagner College. “I am interested in the transition between real and imaginary worlds. A child is able to pass between these worlds with very little effort. A floral wallpaper pattern can become a garden and a doll is as real as any living person. In making the installations, I transform my studio into an imaginary world. I find that by painting the setups I create, I can begin to bring the world to life. I am interested in layers of artificiality. I enjoy the kind of joke that is created by painting an object that is a fake version of something in nature. In painting, nothing is real, so it is possible to blur the line between what is artificial and what exists.”