Cynthia-Reeves Opens Sarah Amos Collography Exhibit Today

Landscape is not merely the world we see, according to master printmaker Sarah Amos; it is a way of seeing the world, both real and imagined. For over thirty years, Amos's marks on paper, a visual language of dotted lines traversing across the picture plane, reveal windows into her life's journey to the States, with traces of aboriginal and cultural identity never lagging far behind. In Amos' words, "I record, observe, assemble and archive organic objects, cultural relics, places, tools and experiences, creating a highly personalized iconography. My drawings, paintings, and prints are not only visual diaries, but a language of the real, the imagined, and the half-forgotten".

At the upcoming Art New York, CYNTHIA-REEVES debuts the first public exhibition of Sarah Amos' Cats in the Cradle, (2007), the artist' deeply personal and most ambitious mural-sized collograph and etching to date. The artwork previously was featured on the set of the 2010 Oscar Award winning film, Black Swan. Stretching nearly 8 x 13 feet and comprised of 19 distinct images of shifting planes of land and sea, Cats in the Cradle suggests a mapping marked by deep roots, a complex interweaving of layers against a midnight ground. Here the entanglement and repetition of line and motif together trace the artist's physical and psychological journey: dramatic spatial shifts posit the urban against the rural, opposing worlds with which Amos is familiar. "Our notion of landscape is changing," she writes. "We tend to have either an idealistic or disenfranchised view of our environs, yet, in reality, due to climatic conditions, our landscape and our relationship to it is under severe change."

"Amos is an artist who continually pushes the boundaries of the landscape tradition. She does so also with her chosen medium of printmaking, not afraid to explore, experiment and invent. Contrary to the standard practice of printing editions, Amos makes works that are unique states. She draws over many of her prints, adding additional information in pencil, ink, paint or wash. The works are ambitious in size: they are no longer merely works on paper but instead tapestry-like in scale. The image is pushed all the way to the edge, which not only redefines the "printmaking border" but also positions the works within the realm of painting. Plates are used in multiple configurations. Collography, a technique where the image is inscribed on blocks of cardboard rather than precious metals or stones allows her to gouge, draw, cut and splice a collage of marks that, when printed, give the density, complexity and depth of which she is renowned. She encourages us to get inside the works, lift up the layers and explore what is beneath." (Vincent Alessi, freelance writer, curator, Artistic Director, LUMA | La Trobe University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Australia)

Amos' most recent work brings her vanguard approach in collograph printmaking to fabric; and, further, she explores the traditional etched line through the use of stitching. The work becomes intensely tactile and densely worked, with entire areas rhythmically hand-stitched. There is dynamism to these works, and a satisfying sense of dimensionality, which had been suggested in the prior series of works on paper, but here the materiality takes a central role in communicating the volume that has always been hinted at in her work.

A native of Melbourne, Australia, Sarah Amos studied at the Phillip Institute of Technology there, where she became a Master Printer, and further pursued her training at the Tamarind Institute Master Printer Program in Albuquerque, NM. A recipient of the coveted Joan Mitchell award in painting, (2013), she received fellowships at the Santa Fe Institute Residency, the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in Ireland, and Kaus Australia Residency in Holland. Amos continues to exhibit regularly in the United States and Australia, and is well collected by museums and institutions, including the La Trobe University Museum, Melbourne; The Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY; the Tweed Museum, Deluth, MN; among others. Her works has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Art Collector Australia, Art Review and publications devoted exclusively to printmaking and work on paper.

Art New York opens today, May 3 - 8 at Pier 94, 12th Avenue and 55th Street in New York City. CYNTHIA-REEVES will also feature works by Gudrun Mertes-Frady, Allison Gildersleeve, JaeHyo Lee, Oliver Marsden, George Sherwood and Lionel Smit.