Margery Amdur
Artist Statement
According to Madeline Grynsteijn, senior curator of painting and sculpture at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, "We live in a culture that increasingly melds and confuses previous opposites." My current work initially flirts with the traditional notions of beauty and femininity; however, behind this veil, a complex narrative exists that uses gardens as metaphor. In fairy tales we suspend belief of the ordinary, where hair can be spun into gold. Within my pictorial landscapes, I too perform magic with my materials and processes.
I have collected prefabricated templates from assorted contexts, and have appropriated and enlarged them to produce maps for the imagination. Subtle, suspended, large scale graphite drawings act as backdrops reminiscent of aerial perspective architectural plans. Within what almost could appear to be "mixed-use" subdivisions, three dimensional doodles gather to play. Beneath flights of fancy and shielded from total exposure cast shadows meander and abstract fragments float between translucent layers of frosted mylar that have been cut by hand.
In lieu of creating environments where disparate elements compete for stature, I am interested in cultivating visual tensions within one pictorial playing field where issues of abstraction and representation intersect.
Bio
Originally from Pittsburgh, Margery Amdur received her B.F.A. from Carnegie-Mellon University and her M.F.A. from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Since graduation, she has lived and worked throughout the United States. Amdur has had over 50 solo and two-person exhibitions and has appeared in numerous group shows. Her international exhibitions include Turkey, Hungary, and England. The artist is the recipient of more than a dozen awards and grants. She has been reviewed in national and international publications including Sculpture Magazine and New Art Examiner. Additionally, several catalogs have been published about her work, including Seams to be Constructed.
National and International Solo or Two Person Exhibitions:
2008 Projects Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2007 Emin Hekimgil Art Gallery, Ankara, Turkey
Museo de Arte Contepoeaneo, Managua, Nicaragua
2006 Bellas Artes, Maracaibo, Venezuela
Artifacto, Menagua, Nicaragua
2005 The Alsager Gallery, Manchester, England
Gallery X, Istanbul, Turkey
The Stedman Gallery, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey
2003 The University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary, and Florida International University, Miami, FL,
2004 The Alsager Gallery, Manchester, England
Gallery X, Istanbul, Turkey
The University of New Mexico Special Project Room, Albuquerque, NM.
1999/2000 Hewlett Gallery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
the Indianapolis Contemporary Art Center, Indianapolis, Indiana
the Moreau Gallery at Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana
Stephen Gang Gallery, New York City
1997 Stephen Gang Gallery, New York City
The Foundry in Washington, D.C.,
The Conlon-Siegel Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Urban Institute of Contemporary Art in Grand Rapids, Michigan
1995 Claremont Graduate School, California
1993 Penn State University, Pennsylvania
1992 The University of Alaska, Alaska
1991 The Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia, PA
1986 55 Mercer Street Gallery in New York City
1984 Nexus Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
Appalachian Center for Art & Crafts, Smithville, Tennessee
Group Exhibitions
2007 Projects Gallery, Altered Landscapes, Philadelphia, PA
2005 Hyder Gallery, Four Women, Works on Paper, Philadelphia, PA
2004 HMC Exhibition, Nador Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
2003 the exhibition "Eight" at the Jonson Gallery in Albuquerque, NM
2001 Art Space, Kansas City, MO
1999 "Women Artists from the Land of Enchantment" Lew Allen Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico
1998 "The Cedar Rapids Invitational", Cedar Rapids Art Museum, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
1997 the Monothon of "Site Santa Fe" Santa Fe, New Mexico
1995 Third Street Gallery, Philadelphia
Vanderbilt University
1992 Western University
1990 The Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington, Delaware
1983 Birmingham Museum of Art, Birmingham, Alabama