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(b. 1926 - 2021)
Lin Emery was a New Orleans-based sculptor with an international reputation in the art world. Her kinetic sculptures interpret the lyrical beauty of the natural world as they move.

Emery was born in New York and learned sculpting almost by chance. She began her professional career as a writer, and while asking a Parisian sculptor to teach her about the medium for an article, he accepted her into his all male studio for classes. She was hooked, primarily because she had been born left handed, but forced to write right-handed. Working with clay allowed her to be ambidextrous.

Emery moved New Orleans in 1950 and became a studio assistant to art deco sculptor, Enrique Alferez. After working with stone, terracotta and bronze, she became interested in learning to weld, but the New Orleans welding school didn’t allow women. She enrolled in the Sculpture Center in NY, along with Louise Nevelson, and later exhibited work with other major 20th century sculptors Herbert Ferber, Seymour Lipton and David Smith. Upon returning to New Orleans, she made her mark on the city through her involvement with the first cooperative gallery and through the creation of the International Sculpture Conference.

Emery continued to experiment and adapt her media and techniques over the years. Her sculptures may be found in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC, the Delaware Art Museum and the New Orleans Museum of Art. In 1997 Emery was awarded the Grand Prize for Public Sculpture in Osaka, Japan for her work “Dance of the Tree,” and in 2001 she received the Louisiana Governor’s Award.