What if we reimagined the cosmos, transcended manmade barriers and violence, and created an ecosystem of empathy and care?

Emily Zareen Cronin is a multidisciplinary artist from Queens, New York. Her studio practice, which spans from painting to photography, investigates the coming-of-age through a feminist lens.

Her photos capture cinematic, dream-like moments that romanticize the everyday. She explores the intricacies of femininity, ecology, and belonging with fierce tenderness. 

Her work revisits and reinterprets folklore and oral narratives, heroine and goddess figures, and ecological mysteries from the intertwined pre/post-colonial histories of India, Ireland, and Lenapehoking (New York). Drawing from the divine feminine and healing power of nature, her imagery weaves the mundane into a modern fairytale.

Her work is rooted in otherworldly places that bring one outside of time briefly, which contain infinite possibilities. Soaking in the silent emptiness of these pockets, you find wisdom in small slices of heaven: golden hour sun spots, the ripples of waves, the intense darkness of night, and watching the moon follow you “home”.

Carrying a playful rebelliousness, her paintings embark on the transitional journey between girlhood and womanhood, becoming entangled in a web of love and loss, and finding comfort and strength in friendship. It’s about being torn apart, being put back together again, and trusting yourself in the process.

Her practice prioritizes community and social engagement. DJing and horticulture serve as an extension of her practice - both planting and dancing can affirm a sense of belonging and act as spaces of resistance. In an overwhelming world facing an environmental crisis, reconnecting with the land and sea through revolutionary acts of joy awakens the wonder and enchantment of being alive.