Born and raised in New Hampshire, Emma Stine received a dual degree in Fine Arts and Italian Studies from the University of New Hampshire. During that time she studied oil painting at the Lorenzo de’Medici Institute in Florence, and attended a course on the legacy of totalitarianism in Italy at the University of Rome’s Sapienza Institute, both of which continue to influence her practice. Since coming to Chicago, her practice has focused on interpersonal relationships, ideas of memory and its malleability, and the question of what it means to faithfully represent a family. Her current work aims to expand her painting vocabulary, privileging the character of the paint itself, and exploring how it can be in conversation with the illusionistic image. Emma is currently a second-year MFA candidate in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.