Throughout her vibrant paintings, prints, and textiles, Emma Amos explored the politics of race, sexuality, gender, and Black subjectivity within a predominantly white, Western canon. She often used bold colors, patterned motifs, and mythical iconography. In addition to her artmaking practice, Amos was an essential member of New York–centered artistic communities that celebrated Blackness and feminist perspectives: These included the Spiral Group, Heresies, and Guerrilla Girls. Amos studied at Antioch College and the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London before receiving an MA in art education from New York University. Her work has sold for six figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. She was named a member of The Artsy Vanguard 2020.