AMY ERNST:
Places I Have Never Been
September 11 - October 18, 2008
Places I Have Never Been
September 11 - October 18, 2008
"Looking Through the Window of Time," 2006, Oil & Collage on Canvas, 40 x 50 inches
Press Release:
Amy Ernst calls this body of work Places I Have Never Been. But it hardly refers to places she would like to visit physically. Rather we are invited into her vision of places and processes imagined, that her mind has yet to explore. For Amy has visited many places and has been exposed to great people and experiences. She is the fourth generation artist in the Ernst family. Most famous and written about was her grandfather, the great surrealist, Max Ernst, and her father was the famous abstract artist, Jimmy Ernst. Growing up years were filled with friends of the family that she believed were the norm, incredible people such as Marcel Breuer, Edward Albee, Eli Wallach, Willem deKooning, Lee Krasner, Larry Rivers, and Betty Friedan who still visits the family home. Amy’s father cautioned, “An artist’s life is very hard. Don’t become one and don’t marry one.” She says “little did I know it would choose me.” Out of the richness of her life, Amy has created a unique and individual style. She is both a painter, a collagist, a creator of art books, and in her art she combines past and present seamlessly. She recalls visiting Grandfather Max Ernst, and in his study were shelves filled with old manuscripts, maps, objets d’art etc. One feels the continuation of lineage in art where she has combined clippings and objects that recall past eras with contemporary overlays. Now her work has developed into its own signature using collage and hand-made paper. Study with John Baldessari was important to her realization that the landscape is a tapestry, for her literally. Thus several of her canvases have been sown together back to back, collaged and painted from both sides, like many works from the Renaissance. Amy’s studio is in Long Island City, New York.
Amy Ernst calls this body of work Places I Have Never Been. But it hardly refers to places she would like to visit physically. Rather we are invited into her vision of places and processes imagined, that her mind has yet to explore. For Amy has visited many places and has been exposed to great people and experiences. She is the fourth generation artist in the Ernst family. Most famous and written about was her grandfather, the great surrealist, Max Ernst, and her father was the famous abstract artist, Jimmy Ernst. Growing up years were filled with friends of the family that she believed were the norm, incredible people such as Marcel Breuer, Edward Albee, Eli Wallach, Willem deKooning, Lee Krasner, Larry Rivers, and Betty Friedan who still visits the family home. Amy’s father cautioned, “An artist’s life is very hard. Don’t become one and don’t marry one.” She says “little did I know it would choose me.” Out of the richness of her life, Amy has created a unique and individual style. She is both a painter, a collagist, a creator of art books, and in her art she combines past and present seamlessly. She recalls visiting Grandfather Max Ernst, and in his study were shelves filled with old manuscripts, maps, objets d’art etc. One feels the continuation of lineage in art where she has combined clippings and objects that recall past eras with contemporary overlays. Now her work has developed into its own signature using collage and hand-made paper. Study with John Baldessari was important to her realization that the landscape is a tapestry, for her literally. Thus several of her canvases have been sown together back to back, collaged and painted from both sides, like many works from the Renaissance. Amy’s studio is in Long Island City, New York.