Amy Oates
“I'm curious to see how urban interactions evolve after all of this... it could also mean I have to let go of subject matter that's given me great delight for 15 years. As I've focused on crowds and how interations are shaping the 21st century urban experience, it never occurred to me that our urban experience could include and even necessitate the intentional absence of crowds.”
Available Works
My practice as a painter and printmaker has led to fluidity across media, borrowing approaches from one to inform a wider array of media. Whether painting, etching printing plates, assembling collages, or designing cut paper installations, I ride the line between recognition and abstraction. I simplify color palettes while complexifying layers and patterns, utilizing a construct-deconstruct-reconstruct process.
I am drawn to both urban crowds as complex interconnections that are larger than the sum of individual parts and that embody generative and fragile life.
I explore crowds as representative of ephemeral moments where individuals converge to form something abstract, yet familiar. I am fascinated observing the way people interact and negotiate between personal and public space, and I construct crowds that embody this tension. Our cities are formed, altered, and sustained by rubbed shoulders, blocked views, converging paths, diverging destinations, what is given, and what is taken. Greater density of our urban spaces necessitates greater attention to our social interactions. Within my practice, I am asking myself questions about how we can learn to live within the crowd.