Light Inside the Body

Exhibit by Emily McIlroy

Please note this exhibit has also been promoted under the title “Kingdom”.

Each piece in this series points to the enmeshment and permeability of environments, minds, and bodies. Emerging from a process of layering and often subtraction, they attempt to bridge the enduring with the temporal, the visible with the invisible, the prosaic with the poetic. Looking simultaneously both outward and inward, they connect the realm of wilderness—its beauty, violence, power, and fragility—with our own internal territories.


Jessie Wilber Gallery
February 11 – May 1, 2022


Artist Talk

Friday, February 11 at 5:30pm
In-person in the Jessie Wilber Gallery – Masks Required
OR Online via ZOOM – Registration Required

Artist Statement

“These works were created as an extension of my 2018 Artist Residency at Glacier National Park, and will ultimately be part of an artist book that builds connections between inner and outer “wildernesses.” The book, through an integration of art and text, will invite audiences to explore the boundaries between themselves and the nonhuman world.” – Emily McIlroy

Artist Bio

Emily McIlroy was born and raised in Norman, Oklahoma with her twin brother, Ross. She received her BA in Studio Art from the University of Arizona in 2005 and her MFA in Drawing and Painting from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa in 2011. When she’s not in her studio, Emily enjoys reading, writing, and walking and swimming her way through various terrestrial and aquatic wildernesses. She currently teaches drawing and painting at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa.