Artists

Emma Stern

Press release

Almine Rech Paris, Turenne is pleased to present Hell is Hot, Emma Stern's third solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from April 26 to June 7, 2025.

A “to-watch” list titled: She had sex with WHAT? Sea creatures, sultry bodiless voices, all-seeing angels and motorbikes between the legs—all revved up and swallowed by girly ardor. AI-generated videos of tiny humanoids swept up in muscled, demonic arms. In these videos, the moment of contact is where their bodies—so sculpted, so solid—tremble and melt, meeting the limit of where a haphazard intelligence understands the contact of flesh on flesh. In Emma Stern’s paintings, the edges hold: they gleam with the fullness of freaky desire. Dimorphic idealisms of snatched waists and anti-gravity T&A are morphed into adorable monsters sporting bunny ears and mermaid tails. Sculpted in 3D software favoured by amateur pornographers then finely painted in oils in cyber-sunset hues, Stern’s idols and avatars are give us the post-human we deserve.

— Alex Quicho, theorist and research director