Amy Oates

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. I rely on a construct-deconstruct-reconstruct process.

I am drawn to collective entities that represent complex interconnections, 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, and within my practice, I am asking myself questions about how we can learn to live within the crowd.

In a similar vein, my studies of a...

M.A. Museology, University of Washington

B.A. Magna Cum Laude, Honors College, Studio Art, Baylor University

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010 odetourbansprawl, Gallery110, Seattle
2008 Cliffs and Crowds, Gallery110, Seattle
2006 Senior Exhibition, Cultural Activities Center, Temple, TX

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (selected)
2016-20 Cut Up/Cut Out, Bedford Gallery, CA; Bellevue Arts Museum, WA; Huntsville Museum of Art, AL; Pensacola Museum of Art, FL; Ellen Noel Art Museum, TX; Museum of Arts and Sciences, FL; Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, WI; Amarillo Museum of Art, TX; Art Museum of West Virginia University, WV; Lamont Gallery, NH; Massillon Museum, OH; Carnegie Arts Center, CA
2016 NextNewPaper, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2016 Rising Waters, Shifting Sands, The Compound Gallery, Oakland, CA
2013 Suspended, Makerhaus, Seattle
2012 Bemis Fall Show, Bemis Arts, Seattle
2011 Contexts:Contemporary Image Makers, Kenneth J. Minnaert Gallery, Olympia, WA
2011 Printmaking Now! Juried Exhibition, Gallery110, Seattle
2010 I Know You, I Don’t Know You, Gallery110, Seattle
2010 7x10 PrintZero Print Exchange, Seattle and Chicago
2009 White, Gallery110, Seattle
2009 City of Kent Summer Juried Exhibition, Centennial Center Gallery, Kent, WA
2009 South Puget Sound Community Colleg...