Sapar Contemporary Gallery + Incubator

Emma Ferrer left NYC in 2021 for Italy and set up her studio in a rural area of Tuscany awash with natural beauty, the palpable influence of Renaissance and Medieval painting, and solitude. Ferrer returns to New York in 2025 with a poignant body of work that looks at the complex and fragile relationship between man, animal, and Nature. The granddaughter of Audrey Hepburn, Hepburn Ferrer has kept a modest public profile over the past decade with select public appearances and philanthropic efforts. This is her first solo presentation. At the core of this body of work is the myth of The Scapegoat which Ferrer sees as a foundational tale of animal sacrifice that explores common emotions across traditions. The idea for this body of work was born when Ferrer was first exposed to an ancient Greek human-Scapegoat concept whilst studying the Iliad under Gregory Nagy and Kevin McGrath at Harvard. The story of the Scapegoat has since continued to deeply move her as both a very ancient and poignantly contemporary fable. From pre-biblical and Paleo-Christian myths up until present day stories, Ferrer has found common currents of The Scapegoat in a multitude of unexpected places: among them for example the glorification of racing, la corrida, and hunting practices. To bolster this research, Ferrer has taken a number of courses in Greek mythology, theology, and philosophy of religion at the Harvard Extension School, and currently at Oxford University. Ferrer speaks about the emotional charge of her own works representing sacrificed animals: “I am keenly interested in complex emotional states of humans surrounding animal sacrifice… among them guilt, grief, regret, shame, hope, ecstasy, catharsis, redemption, and fear of exile.” Ferrer has been reading the works of Sir James Frazer, Kenneth Burke, and René Girard that give a philosophical and theological context to the idea of the “Scapegoat”. She is especially moved by Kenneth Burke who writes, “if one can hand over his infirmities to a vessel, or “cause,” outside the self, one can battle an external enemy instead of battling an enemy within.” Ferrer, who shares her home and studio in the Apuan Alps with her two herding dogs, Orso and Lilla, also reflects on the various mundane occurrences in her village and community. She is strongly influenced by the profound isolation of her area, and the way that life therein summons a strong interdependence on one’s fellow human and other creatures.