Amy Hill, "Woman in Striped Dress" 16x19". oil on wood
Amy Hill
solo exhibition
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
September 12th - October 18th, 2020
Amy Hill, "Woman in Plaid". 20x22". oil on canvas
The Front Room Gallery is proud to present, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Amy Hill. This is the artist's fourth solo show at the gallery.
In this newest body of work, Hill counterposes contemporary subject matter with early American aesthetics. She draws inspiration from the highly illustrative early American painters who depicted mostly children using simple lines, sharply defined forms and carefully formed compositions. Like her predecessors she gives an equal level of attention to all areas of the canvas and leaves an absence of expressive brushwork, thereby retaining the naïveté and hand-made quality of the works. She then adds opposing contemporary references that serve to reflect where the world is heading.
The flattened perspective and strong use of pattern further add to her reference to American folk art, with each figure earnestly posed in the foreground of a distorted picture plane. The figures gaze intensely at the viewer, creating an attraction and connection to their worlds.
Amy Hill, "Two Girls and a Dog” 23"x24". oil on canvas
These worlds depict both natural and manufactured elements that question the merits of a modern life infused with technology. Hill asks if we are sacrificing starry skies and green fields with fresh air for unnatural city life in a modernized world that lures and seduces us with cutting-edge gadgets and the empty promises of corporations for security and happiness. She visualizes the push and pull between nature and technology, and feels a perpetual challenge to find a balance between the two.
Amy Hill is a New York based artist who received a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University. She has received grants from the Peter S. Reed Foundation and Art Matters, a studio grant from the Elizabeth Foundation and nominations for the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. She has also received a Purchase Award from West Publishing Company and a Juror Award from the NYU Small Works Show. Hill has exhibited both nationally and Internationally. Her work has been extensively reviewed in such publications as Harper’s Magazine, Artnet Magazine and the New York Times.