Amanda Burnham creates large scale drawings that are often site specific installations. Burnham has a BA from Harvard University in Visual and environmental studies and an MFA from Yale University in Painting and Printmaking. She is now a Professor as Townson University. Throughout the years she has had her work shown in many places; a few to note would be the Delaware contemporary, Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, and the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art.
Civic Body
Site specific installation at Visarts, Rockville Acrylic, flashe, paper, and tape on wall/floor approx. 30′ x 10′ 2017 photo credit: Joseph Hyde
The works shown below are a series of wall drawings that are of cities. A subject that became of interest to her when she moved out of the midwest to the east coast for school. The cities in the east coast were so much different than what she knew back home that it caught her attention. In and interview with inertia studios she specifically points out how “spaces that were dense, dynamic, and mixed use, where a lot of space is shared, and neighbors weren’t a thing you mostly avoided or ignored”. These are themes that I think come across really clear in her work.
In the work she often uses paper scraps. Her process starts by her taking time to walk around in the city to get inspiration and ideas. From there she then begins the process of making quick gestural paintings using acrylic. These paintings are then collaged together on the wall and armatures on site. Lighting is also an important aspect of this work as it is used in a way that emphasizes the layering in the work and as Burham states animates it.
Untitled (Under Surveillance)
Untitled (Under Surveillance) (installation view) Site specific drawing installation at Arlington Art Center Flashe, acrylic, paper, tape and lights 2016
When a show/exhibition is over Burnham will tear down all the paper from the works and put it bags with the intention of using it again in future works.
Citations
https://amandaburnham.com/artwork/4514108-Civic-Body.html
https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/amanda-burnham
drawing into space 