Emma Ferrer grew up in Los Angeles and Florence, and like her grandmother, the actress Audrey Hepburn, studied ballet. She has modeled, acted, and, again like Hepburn, works as a spokesperson for Unicef. In 2021, Ferrer set up an art studio in rural Tuscany. And she’s never stopped learning, having taken courses in mythology, theology, and philosophy at the Harvard Extension School and at Oxford University; in 2024, she received her MFA from Central Saint Martins, in London. Ferrer keeps a low profile, but she has now surfaced at Sapar Contemporary, where the first solo presentation of her paintings is on view. The exhibition is called “The Scapegoat,” a subject based on an ancient Greek concept. “I am keenly interested in complex emotional states of humans surrounding animal sacrifice,” Ferrer says, “among them guilt, grief, regret, shame, hope, ecstasy, catharsis, redemption, and fear of exile.” The images are pastoral, spiritual, and verge on the surreal. There is also tenderness. —Laura Jacobs