Emma McCagg
Emma McCagg was born in Concord, Massachusetts and raised in Pittsburgh and New York. She began making drawings as a child of which some of these appeared in her first film, a documentary feature entitled There's Something About John.
McCagg attended Friends Seminary in New York City and traveled to Europe to study art. In London, she enrolled at the Byam Shaw School of Art to study painting. While there she met Graham Nickson, a visiting professor, who would later be the Dean of the New York Studio School where McCagg would also later study.
Upon returning to New York City, she attended and received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and worked at the Lewisboro Ledger in Westchester County where she did investigative reporting. She would later attend Boston University where she obtained an MS in journalism.
Painting for many years, receiving the Paul Gottlieb Scholarship and the Milton Avery Scholarship at the New York Studio School and exhibiting in 20+ solo exhibitions and 50+ group exhibitions worldwide, McCagg ultimately focussed on painting large-scale family portraits that has produced many private collectors. She is represented by the Pristine Galerie in Monterrey, Mexico and Gosia Koscielak Gallery in Chicago, and PRZ New York.
Recently, McCagg expanded her practice to explore the medium of film. Her documentary feature film, There’s Something About John, was funded by a grant in 2018 from NYSCA (New York State Council for the Arts), four grants from the JMKaplan Fund, a City Artist Corps grant, and many private donations. Among numerous other festival awards it won Best Documentary Feature at the Big Apple Film Festival in 2020 and Audience Choice in the Amsterdam Lift Off Film Festival 2021.
McCagg is presently working on a painting portrait project titled Mr & Mr and Family for which she received a New York State Council for the Arts (NYSCA) grant.
Emma McCagg lives and works in New York.