Emile Rubino (*1992, French, lives and works in Brussels) plays with the clumsy and often ambiguous nature of photography’s declarative register, working through the semantics of picture-making. By combining, appropriating or reinterpreting a wide range of photographic discourses and histories, he directs our attention towards the photographic image as both an object and a depiction — a thin yet capacious container whose material, contextual and ideological relationship to labor and creativity is a constant negotiation. His purposefully eclectic and at times collaborative approach to picture-making involves a mix of analogue and digital processes in an attempt to question the notion of ‘the photographic’ and address the complex relationship between the social roles of art and realism.

His recent solo exhibitions include LambdaLambdaLambda hosted by Hussenot, Paris (2025); WIELS Affiliate, Brussels (2024); LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina (2024); rhizome_, Kortrijk (2023); CC Strombeek, Grimbergen (2022); Situations, New-York (2021).

His recent group exhibitions include KANAL Centre-Pompidou, Brussels (upcoming); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2026); KIN, Brussels (2025); Am Schwarzenbergplatz, Vienna (2024); Soft Opening, CONDO London (2024); Air de Paris, Romainville (2023); LambdaLambdaLambda, Prishtina (2023); FOMU, Antwerp (2022); Treize, Paris (2022); LA MAISON DE RENDEZ-VOUS, Brussels (2021).

Together with Felix Rapp, he co-edits Le Chauffage magazine, an artist-run publication based between Brussels and Vancouver.
His writing has appeared in frieze, Text zur Kunst, Provence, CFA and The Capilano Review.
In 2025, he was artist-in-residence at CAC - la synagogue de Delme.