Double Dutch, 2019 (detail)
BURLINGTON, VERMONT
Curatorial Essay
Dividing her time between Northern Vermont and her native Australia, Sarah Amos is among a vanguard of artists devising conceptual and formal innovations in printmaking that transcend conventions and forge new meanings. BCA Center’s Unique Multiples surveys the past five years of Amos’ creative practice, beginning with a pivotal shift in 2014 when Amos moved from printing on paper to producing monumental images on fabric. Professionally trained as a collaborative master printer at the prestigious Tamarind Institute in New Mexico, Amos has spent more than two decades teaching and working with other artists to create print editions. She is highly skilled in various techniques, ranging from lithography and etching to monoprints and collagraphs. In her personal body of work, she explores the inherent qualities of her materials and process. Creating singular and unique prints, Amos combines collagraph, woodcut, appliqué, painting, drawing, and stitch work with felt and linen. These hybrid prints are a fusion of tradition and experimentation, upending conventional notions of printmaking and collapsing the boundaries between media.
Unique Multiples encompasses a formative period in Sarah Amos’ evolution as an artist. Works from her Black Box Series and Lunette Series were created around the time when the artist received the Joan Mitchell Award in painting and sculpture. Concurrently, Amos was shifting away from working with paper due to its expense and size limitations and began to investigate other surfaces, such as canvas and linen. On a fateful trip to a local fabric store in 2014, the artist came upon a large bolt of acrylic felt that looked remarkably similar to a roll of Japanese paper. Realizing the exciting potential for this new discovery, Amos returned to her studio with several bolts of cream and gray felt and began printing on them. The outcome of this exploration is 39 Shillings, the earliest example of her collagraph on felt method. Consisting of an interplay of structural and organic shapes, this work layers biomorphic imagery evoking natural forms, such as branching coral or insect mounds, with a central geometric abstraction printed directly on the felt and repeated as a mirror image on appliquéd fabric. Beginning with this pivotal work, Amos shifted her artistic vision in a radically new direction over the next several years.
39 Shillings, 2014
Amos could not have achieved the scale and textural quality of her hybrid prints without the collagraph process. She discovered the technique fifteen years ago while visiting a print studio in Montreal. The artist was drawn instantly to the simplicity and economy of the collagraph, as well as to its capacity to create significantly larger images using a lighter substrate – typically laminated cardboard – as opposed to metal. Amos makes each collagraph plate with an additive technique using carborundum, glue, grout, or found materials that are built and layered onto the plate’s surface. The resulting matrix is then inked and pressed several times to produce the final image. Due to the collagraph’s textured surface and selective inking, the artist achieves remarkable tonal depth and impressive, multi-layered imagery. Unique Multiples features a group of five monumental, hybrid prints that veer away from suggestions of the cosmic and environmental realms towards that of the figurative. Blue Isabelle and The Arrival arrest our attention with their intrepid rhythms of design and color, heightened by ornate stitch work that conjures up elaborate headdresses or beaded crowns.
Exploring materiality and memory, the artist’s richly patterned imagery is based on a confluence of visual sources including organic, scientific, and cultural motifs. Blue Isabelle exemplifies Amos’ investigation of the limits of pattern and ornamentation. She distills her wide-ranging interest in organic structures and decorative design to create a fascinating balance of implied figuration with embellished abstraction. The peripatetic, dotted lines found in earlier works, such as 39 Shillings, have coalesced into the bold, geometric shapes of free-form stitch work found in Blue Isabelle or The Arrival. These figurative elements are placed against an ornately patterned background of biomorphic forms suggestive of a natural brocade. Amos describes these abstractions as a type of private opera, where she sets the stage for her costumed performers to appear. Amos’ practice is equally invested in mark making, especially the dot and dash, which recur throughout her hybrid prints. Her incorporation of stitched dots and broken lines, combined with the process of drawing or painting on her compositions (taboo in traditional printmaking), is another layer of mark making that captures
Artist’s studio, East Fairfield, Vermont
the physicality and gesture of her creative process. Rudimentary dots and dashes, executed in bamboo thread in works such as I Stop, I Look, are distilled from Amos’ aesthetic investigations of indigenous designs and ceremonies found in multiple cultures from Southeast Asia to Oceania, the Balkans to sub-Saharan Africa. Whereas critics often exclusively attribute the dot to the influence of Australian aboriginal design, Amos’ marks suggest a more global cultural perspective. The artist describes herself as a “visual archeologist,” someone who studies the artifacts and history of civilizations to realize a deeper, personal understanding or connection to the past. Drawn to tribal and indigenous cultures, the artist is captivated by traditions of handmade artifacts and their latent power to express universal ideas about society. Works such as Jute and Bones or Silk and Feathers, allude to the striking regalia that frequently accompany rituals. Emblematic of spirituality, ceremony, and interconnection, these timeless materials connect us to past traditions and societies, as well as to the natural world. Rather than appropriating a traditional motif from a specific culture, Amos synthesizes the marks, patterns, and designs she collects to create an imaginative and highly personal form of visual heritage. Hints of Home signifies the artist’s most recent shift in her artistic practice as she moves from the preciousness and ornamentation of her earlier works onto bold arrangements printed on raw canvas. Retaining some elements of her stitch work, Hints of Home and the Interchange Series emphasize simple, abstract forms constructed from collaged and painted configurations. Amos begins by painting on canvas and then layering collagraph over the painted surface. Enclosed within overlapping rectangles, these enigmatic shapes signify a more robust, sculptural language, reminiscent of designs found in Tlingit carvings or Japanese netsuke.
In Citrus Gumbo Series, Amos further streamlines composition and pattern to return to creating works on paper. These smaller images are distinct: they contain only minimal elements of printmaking and emphasize drawing and painting. In these intimate investigations, Amos experiments equally with color and form. She especially pushes the limits of color to include brilliant combinations of citrine yellow and hot pink, juxtaposed with restful areas of white, black, and grey. Amos describes Citrus Gumbo Series as her sketchbook or incubator where she conceptually resolves compositions before executing a larger, hybrid print. Unique Multiples embodies a creative paradox: how can an artist use the traditions of printmaking, with an emphasis on paper and multiple reproductions yet integrate those conventions with divergent disciplines, such as fiber arts and painting, to create unique and singular works of contemporary art? Innovative and experimental, Sarah Amos constructs an inventive visual language influenced by diverse cultures within a unified body of monumental, hybrid prints. She transcends traditional notions of printmaking as a way to surpass the boundaries between media and forge new meanings out of our collective pasts. By combining a multitude of artistic disciplines, materials, and visual traditions, Amos creates provocative works of art that are as distinctively personal as they are universal. Heather Ferrell Curator and Director of Exhibitions
Installation view, Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples, 2019, BCA Center
Citrus Gumbo Series, 2019 collagraph on paper with gouache 16" x 20" top row, left to right #15, 12, 11, 3, 5 middle row, left to right #1, 6, 9, 13, 14 bottom row, left to right #2, 4, 8, 7, 10
Dove’s Eye, 2019 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 86" x 64"
Hints of Home, 2019 collagraph on canvas 78" x 66"
Double Dutch, 2018 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 86" x 64"
Silk and Feathers, 2017 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 60" x 40"
The Arrival, 2017 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 86" x 66"
Jute and Bones, 2017 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 60" x 40"
Installation view, Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples, 2019, BCA Center
I Stop, I Look, 2016 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 84" x 66"
Blue Isabelle, 2016 collagraph on felt with bamboo thread 84" x 66"
39 Shillings, 2014 collagraph on felt with linen and bamboo thread 66" x 73"
Middlepoint, 2014 collagraph on felt with acrylic and bamboo thread 66" x 78"
Lunette Series, 2013 collagraph on paper with acrylic 20" x 16" clockwise, from top left #28, 14, 3, 20
Installation view, Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples, 2019, BCA Center
Black Box Series #3A, 2013 collagraph on paper with acrylic 20" x 16"
Lunette Series #29, 2013 collagraph on linen with acrylic 20" x 16"
Interchange Series, 2013 collagraph, canvas, and felt with acrylic 16" x 20" clockwise, from top left #8, 7, 6, 5
Interchange Series #2, 2013 collagraph on felt with acrylic 20" x 16"
Installation view, Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples, 2019, BCA Center
Sarah Amos Education
Printmaking, Phillip Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
2002
Summer Workshop, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
1992
Master Printer Program, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
1991
Professional Printer Training Program, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne, Australia Cynthia Reeves, New York, NY
2006
Spheris Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT
2005
Cynthia Reeves, New York, NY
2003
1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA Spheris Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT
2001
Programs/Workshops
Gallery 101, Melbourne, Australia
Mark W. Potter Gallery, Taft School, Watertown, CT
MFA 1998 Printmaking, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT BFA 1987
2007
Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH UMF Art Gallery, University of Maine, Farmington, ME
2000
Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
1999
Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT Cordell Taylor Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT
Small Impressions, The Printmaking Council of New Jersey, Somerville, NJ
1998 Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Grants/Residencies 2014
Joan Mitchell Independent Artist Grant
2006
Residency Program, Santa Fe Arts Institute, Santa Fe, NM
2002 Residency Program, Kaus Australia, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH 1992 Museum Gallery, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM
Group Exhibitions
2001
Residency Program, Ballinglen Arts Foundation, County Mayo, Ireland
2019
Vermont Artists to Watch, Vermont Arts Council, Montpelier, VT
1998
Residency Program, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2018
Printstallations, San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, San Jose, CA
2017
Matters at Hand, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, CT
2014
Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Solo Exhibitions
2019
CUE Art Foundation, New York, NY
Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples, BCA Center, Burlington, VT
Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV
2017
The Tracing Wall, Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2016 Gensler Visiting Artist Program, Washington, DC
Cynthia Reeves, Walpole, NH
2015
Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Gallery Shoal Creek, Austin, Texas
Cynthia Reeves Projects, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2014
Cynthia Reeves Projects, Brattleboro, VT
2013
Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2011
Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
2010
Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2009
Gallery 101, Melbourne, Australia
La Trobe University Visual Arts Centre, Victoria, Australia Cynthia Reeves, New York, NY
2008
Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH
Off On A Tangent, Washington Art Association, Washington, CT
2013
The Print Show, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, CT
2012
Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH
Ground Truth, Housatonic Museum of Art, Bridgeport, CT Impressed, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
The Complex Weave, Salina Art Center, Salina, KS
Printmaking Invitational, Keene State College, Keene, NH
The Complex Weave, Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Conference of the Birds, MANA Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ The Complex Weave, Fisher Museum, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Mikros Series, Art Vault Gallery, Victoria, Australia
2011 The Complex Weave, Penn State University, Philadelphia, PA
Pattern Matters – Impact 7, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
2010 The Complex Weave, Towson University, Towson, MD 2009
1998
Works on Paper, Spheris Gallery, New York Armory Show, New York, NY
The Complex Weave, Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA
Amos Eno Gallery, Small Works International, New York, NY
Spheris Gallery, Hanover, NH
Bristol Art Museum, Bristol, RI
The Complex Weave, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Pulled Images, Helen Day Arts Center, Stowe, VT
Ball State University Museum, Muncie, IN 2008
Elaine L. Jacob Gallery, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
Spencertown Academy Arts Center, Spencertown, NY
2006
Eclipse Mill Gallery, North Adams, MA Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC Hot Pics, Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY
Works on Paper, New York Armory Show, New York, NY
2005
Washington Art Association, Washington Depot, CT
2004
Works on Paper, New York Armory Show, New York, NY
2003
2016-15
Art New York Pier 94, Cynthia Reeves Projects, New York, NY
2015-14 Miami Art Fair, Cynthia Reeves Projects, Miami, FL 2014 London Art Fair, Cynthia Reeves Projects, London, UK Pulse Art Fair, New York, NY
Silicon Valley Art Fair, San Francisco, CA
Spheris Gallery, Bellows Falls, VT
Art Miami, Miami, FL
Cynthia Reeves, New York, NY
2006
Miami Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, FL
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
2002
Affordable Art Fair, Spheris Gallery, New York, NY
Saw Hill Gallery, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA
Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT
The Vessel, Brattleboro Museum of Art, Brattleboro, VT
2002 Ballinglen Foundation, County Mayo, Ireland Master Prints, The Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT Dolan Maxwell Gallery, Chicago Art Fair, Chicago, IL
The Abstract Mind, New England College Gallery, Henniker, NH
Works on Paper, Spheris Gallery, New York Armory Show, New York, NY
2001
2016 Miami Art Fair, Cynthia Reeves Projects, Miami, FL
Art Fairs
The Third National Print Fair, The University of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, MN
Professional Experience 2019 Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth University, Hanover, NH 2018 Adjunct Professor, Bennington College, Bennington, VT 2017-18 Adjunct Professor, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 2017 Visiting Artist, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT 2014-16 Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth University, Hanover, NH 2013 Adjunct Professor, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Works on Paper, Spheris Gallery, New York Armory Show, New York, NY
Adjunct Professor, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
International Works on Paper, The University of Hawaii at Hilo, Hilo, HI
Visiting Artist, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
The Month of the Monoprint, Burlington City Arts, Burlington, VT
2000
Works on Paper, Spheris Gallery, New York Armory Show, New York, NY Rewind 99, Cordell Taylor Gallery, Salt Lake City, UT Printmakers, Spheris Gallery, Walpole, NH
1999
Works on Paper, Spheris Gallery, New York Armory Show, New York, NY Brookdale Community College, Lincroft, NJ
Department of Environmental Protection, Trenton, NJ
2012
2011 Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth University, Hanover, NH 2009
Visiting International Artist, La Trobe University, Victoria, Australia
Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Adjunct Professor, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
2007 Adjunct Professor, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Rockwell Visiting Artist, Taft School, Watertown, CT
Visiting Artist, Victorian College of The Arts, Melbourne, Australia
Kean University, Union, NJ Manifest 99, The Copley Society of Boston, Boston, MA
Visiting Artist, Art Vault, Victoria, Australia
2006
Adjunct Professor, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
Professional Experience
Articles and Publications
2002-04 Adjunct Professor, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Artist Profile, Where Women Create, September 2019
2001 Visiting Artist, Williams College, Williamstown, MA
Artist Profile, Katherine Kernan, Singular and Serial: Contemporary Monotype and Monoprint, 2019 “A Sense of the Hand,” Vermont Art Guide, March 3, 2019
Visiting Artist, Scoula Internaazionale Di Graphica, Santa Croce, Venice, Italy
Visiting Artist, Bennington College, Bennington, VT
Robert Kiener, “No Boundaries,” New England Home Magazine, September 14, 2016
Visiting Artist, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, NY
“Cynthia-Reeves Opens Sarah Amos Collography Exhibit Today,” Broadway World, May 3, 2016
1998 Visiting Artist, Green Farms Academy, Southport, CT 1996 Adjunct Professor, Johnson State College, Johnson, VT
Artist Profile, Textile Magazine, March 2018
Artist Profile, The Vermont Art Guide, Issue 2, 2016 Rachel Elizabeth Jones, “Art Review: ‘Fractured/works on Paper,’ Helen Day Art Center,” Seven Days, October 28, 2015 “Artist Sarah Amos,” Daily Imprint, August 31, 2015
1994-04
Master Printer/Director, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Sarah Amos Studio, “Sarah Amos: Collagraph Fabric Constructions,” exh. catalogue, 2015
1993-95
Collaborative Printer, Bob Blackburn’s Printmaking Workshop, New York, NY
London Art Fair Exhibition Review, “The New Art,” The Wall Street Journal, 2013
1993 Visiting Artist, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Exhibition Review, Marcus Bunyan, “Intersections by Sarah Amos at Gallery 101,” Art Blart World Press, August 4, 2009
1992
Staff Printer, Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque, NM
“People and Places,” The Bendigo Miner, September 3, 2009
1991
Research Assistant/Senior Printer, Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM
1989
Coordinator of Printmaking, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, Victoria, Australia
1988-90
Printmaking Technician, Victorian College of the Arts, Southbank, Victoria, Australia
Exhibition Review, Sharon, Grenaway, “Intersections: New Work On Paper,” OurPatch, September 9, 2009 Beth Grabowski and Bill Fick, Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Processes, 2009 Image, Jamison, Bazinet, The Republican-American, January 2007 Image, Jason Henske, Weekend Reformer, December 2005 Image, Art On Paper, Vol 8, No 6, July–Aug, 2004
Collections The Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Lebanon, NH Victoria Racing Club, Flemington, Melbourne, Australia La Trobe University Museum, Melbourne, Australia Vick Corporate Art, New York, NY Time Warner, Permanent Collection, New York, NY Alliance Capitol, New York, NY The Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Permanent Collection, Lebanon, NH The Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT Tweed Museum, Duluth, MN Meditech Corporation, Boston, MA Prudential Insurance, Boston, MA Fidelity Insurance, Permanent Collection, Boston, MA Green Farms Academy Collection, Southport, CT Mark Waskow Collection, Burlington, VT The Ted Wassmer Collection, CO
Artist Profile, Paulette Pullen-Roberts, “Artists Without Borders,” Style Weekly, 2003 Image, Noetic Sciences Review, Sept–Nov 2002 Dave Gagon, “Galleries Update,” Deseret News, November 1999 Rachael Gaffron, “Monoprint Invitational,” The Prospectus, Champaign, IL, December 1999 Exhibition Review, Bill Siclen, “Talent from around the Nation In Bristol Show,” Providence Journal, 1998 Artist Profile, Robert Smith, “Printmaker Opens Show in Walpole,” Rutland Daily Herald, 1998 “Monotype Workshop at Helen Day,” Stowe Reporter, 1996 Exhibition Review, “Paintings by Sarah Amos at Red Mill Gallery,” Stowe Reporter, 1996 Gary Clark, “Monoprints and Drawings,” Stowe Reporter, 1995
Biography Sarah Amos (b. 1965, Melbourne, Australia) is an artist and collaborative master printer. Her work employs multiple processes, combined with nontraditional materials, to challenge the contemporary boundaries of printmaking. Amos earned her BFA in printmaking from the Phillip Institute of Technology in Melbourne, Australia and her MFA in printmaking from Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. In 1992, she trained at the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico to become a Master Printer. Amos has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, most recently at the Huntington Museum of
Art in West Virginia; the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art in California; the Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne, Australia; and Heather Gaudia Fine Art in New Canaan, CT. She has been an artist-in-residence at The Art Vault in Mildura in Victoria, Australia; the Santa Fe Arts Institute in New Mexico; the Ballinglen Arts Foundation in County Mayo, Ireland; and the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson, Vermont. In 2014, Amos was recognized with an award from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. She currently resides in East Fairfield, Vermont.
CURATOR: Heather Ferrell CURATORIAL ASSISTANT: Colin Storrs DESIGN: Ted Olson EDITOR: Dr. Sarah Rogers PHOTOGRAPHY: Sam Simon All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples.
Sarah Amos: Unique Multiples would not have been possible without the dedication of many individuals. Special gratitude to Colin Storrs, Curatorial Assistant, Melinda Johns, Education Coordinator, Ted Olson, Design Director, Andrew Krebbs, Communications Director, Dr. Sarah Rogers, Editor, Peter Crummy and Jacquelyn O’Brien, gallery installation. Additional thanks to curatorial interns: Barrie Knapp, Chaz Krouse, and Meg Smith. The artist would like to thank Roger Adkins, Heather Gaudio Fine Art, New Canaan, CT, and Flinders Lane Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
ISBN 978-0-9884238-7-9 ©2019 Burlington City Arts | BURLINGTONCITYARTS.ORG
Middlepoint, 2019 (detail)
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