Amy Pleasant
Amy Pleasant’s solo exhibition This Fragile Thing was formed around a series of images that have evolved over the last 5 years. Through her drawing process, shapes emerge that inform her drawing, painting and sculptural work. These figurative images continue to transform in both shape and meaning over time.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a diptych titled Double Prop, each panel depicting a seated figure folding in on itself, propping its weight on bended knee in a protective and restful posture. Hung on the same wall, but spaced at a distance, they mirror each other, leaning forward as if to close the gap between them.
Neck, a series of 6 ink and gouache works on paper, stack in the shape of a pyramid, a symbol of both death and afterlife. The gouache shapes represent the space between the neck and chest, one of the most vulnerable parts of the body.
The powder-coated aluminum sculpture, Pivot, reveals a female torso twisting in a gesture that simultaneously touches the ground and reaches for the sky.
The works included in the exhibition This Fragile Thing are populated with images of the body falling, folding, collapsing, and twisting, all which speak to the instability and weight of this moment in time and its effects on our physical and mental well-being.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Amy Pleasant received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1994) and an MFA from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University (1999).
Pleasant has received numerous awards including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Award, and the South Arts Prize for Alabama.
Solo exhibitions include Laney Contemporary, Savannah, GA; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; TOPS Gallery, Memphis, TN; Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN; Geary Contemporary, Millerton/NYC; Institute 193, Lexington, KY; whitespace gallery, Atlanta, GA; Jeff Bailey Gallery, Hudson/NYC; Atlanta Contemporary, GA; among others.
Group exhibitions include Taymour Grahne Projects (online), Stove Works, Chattanooga, TN; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; KDR, Miami, FL; Pamela Salisbury Gallery, Hudson, NY; Knoxville Museum of Art, TN; Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, GA; Hesse Flatow, New York, NY; SEPTEMBER, Hudson, NY; Mindy Solomon Gallery, Miami, FL; Tif Sigfrids, Athens, GA; Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR; Lamar Dodd School of Art, Athens, GA.
Her work has been reviewed in Art in America, Art Papers, Artforum, The Brooklyn Rail, Burnaway and Sculpture. Recent interviews include the podcasts Modern Art Notes with Tyler Green and Sound & Vision with Brian Alfred.