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SoCal artist Emily Araújo lives in Pasadena and works out of a studio in Glendale. Having lived in twenty-three different residences between eight states and four countries, since childhood, 2014 marked a new era: Emily and her husband bought their first home in Altadena, California. Together with their children, they cultivated roots and a home unlike anything she had ever dreamed of. In 2025, their house, the one place she had lived longest in her lifetime, and her studio, burned to ash in the Eaton Fire.

Emily’s post-fire paintings are patterned, color-packed meditations on the L.A. landscape. Urban gardens, which she sees as thresholds between home and the outside world, are her inspiration. While a keen observer and avid photographer of her surroundings, her paintings are derived from imagination and memory. Her references range from native plant thickets to geometric hedges and gravel patch lawns.

Emily earned a BFA in printmaking, at California College of the Arts, where she gained a deep love of materials and processes. It was in the Carnegie Mellon MFA program that her conceptual and political work blossomed. Exhibiting for over 30 years, Emily’s solo show venues include: Shoebox Projects, Los Angeles; Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, Michigan and Casa do Brasil, Madrid, Spain. In addition to her solo art practice, Emily is a former member of the cyberfeminist collective subRosa spearheaded by Faith Wilding, and is now a member of the Artnauts, a group invested in social sculpture, forging connections across politically fraught boundaries. Emily will be the Fall 2026 Firefly Artist in Residence at Blue Roof in Los Angeles.