Amy Butowicz was born and raised in Akron Ohio and currently lives and works in New York. She received a BA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her MFA from Hunter College in New York City.
Butowicz has been awarded fellowships and scholarships to attend Lighthouse Works, DNA Residency, Salem Art Works, Vermont Studio Center, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Summer Studio Program, Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, and Anderson Ranch Arts Center. She is a 2019 and 2022 nominee for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist in New York Grant. Her work has been published in Art Maze Magazine and is held in private collections.
Her recent solo exhibitions include Pantomime at The Dairy Center for the Arts in Boulder, Colorado, Inhabit at Anderson Ranch Arts Center, A Room to Hoist at Hunter College, New York City, New York, Hiding in Plain Sight at Underdonk, Brooklyn, New York, Boudoir Theatre at Peninsula Art Space in Brooklyn, New York and Rapture in the Fold, at Peninsula Gallery in New York City, NY.
"My works on paper result in forms that slip between human, animal and abstract. Created using watercolor, sumi-ink, gouache and wax, they have an intimate relationship to the viewer, either as a direct association to the body or as a closer, personal viewing experience. Gestures are both casual and quick to slow and precise and moments that are first read as collage are discovered to be embedded in the work and not material added to the surface. Fragmented hands and feet both depict moments of touch and a closeness that oscillates between repulsion and attraction. With compositions that imply movement and a bold color palette, the fingers, feet, hoofs and hands amass together almost as a sculptural form set on a stage, inside a domestic interior, or balanced on a pedestal in the shape of a hand or foot. My work explores the body as a fundamental boundary that is always in flux. Often considered a fetish, the fingers, toes, feet, hands, and hooves are separated from the rest of the body causing them to be independent abstracted objects. These abstracted objects become subjects that explore boundaries between dualities such as pain and pleasure, repulsion and attraction, support and oppression, mind and body, and interior and exterior. These dualities are always shifting between poles and occupying liminal spaces where distinctions are suspended. Finger and toenails are markers of time and occupy a space of both pain and pleasure. The nail is a site of torture, when removed it often returns malformed, recoding the history of trauma. It causes pain as it aggressively scratches, generates pleasure as it lightly traces the surface of the skin, creates a tickle impossible to endure, and can alleviate an itch on another’s back. Body parts almost touching illustrating the moment when attraction and repulsion are at their height and one foot overlapping another in a state of rest questions which is the base of support. Drawing has immediacy, it exists in the present tense and is always in a state of becoming. I am captivated by the risk associated with making a mark, tampering with the freshness of a drawing, and altering the emotion it emits. Using automatic drawing as a starting point, my works are connected to my life experience and the Surrealist quest to expose the subconscious. The finished works are created through repurposing my initial drawings and are built by an additive process while developing relationships found between compositional elements. Color is used intuitively and symbolically to express emotion and create a sense of space as it operates the shifting figure and ground relationships. The mind and body are in constant dialog, they negotiate feelings associated with love, sexuality, relationships, and violence. I consider the paper as a surface where this dialog emerges while recording the process trying to make sense of both our transcendent interior and physical exterior."
Tell us a little about yourself (where you are from) and your background in the arts.
My journey as an artist started in Akron, Ohio while taking a high school photography class. I was lucky enough to have a fantastic art teacher that supported my aspirations by giving me additional opportunities and encouragement.
After earning my BA in Studio Art from the University of Colorado, I found myself living in a remote mountain town selling cell phones door to door. A routine sales call with a local business owner whose company sold artwork to hotels, ended up shifting a direction in my life. After setting up his Verizon account and Motorola StarTAC, I started my career as an art consultant and creative for the hospitality industry.
As the years passed by, I began to feel a conflict growing within. When I reflected on this inner conflict, I knew that at the root was my unfulfilled dreams of obtaining my Master of Fine Art. Once I realized this, I began to explicitly question how I was choosing to spend my free time. I set my goals to developing a body of work that I would use to apply to graduate school. In total this process took me six years. During those six years I completed a six-month independent study with an artist and mentor, I enrolled in several art courses at a local community college, I took workshops at art centers, and traveled for three different one-month artist residences. Due to these activities, I was able to develop relationships with artists and educators that would become my references for graduate school applications.
In 2014 I applied to several Universities based on the funding they offered and the length of their programs. My goal was to leave school with as little debt as possible. I also decided to only apply for three-year programs because I wanted more time to study and learn. When I was accepted to Hunter College, I was both ecstatic and filled with imposter syndrome. I moved my life across the country and completely started over. I graduated from Hunter College in 2018 and have remained living and working in New York.
What kind of work are you currently making?
I am currently focused on works on paper. These start as automatic drawings and undergo an additive development as I mine imagery from my initial marks. After spending several years working in sculpture, I am enjoying the shift of pace in making that drawing and painting offers. I am continually interested in how the marks inhabit the space of the paper, how their physical relationships affect meaning, and how color operates a composition. I can spend hours mixing and remixing a color until I find the exact hue and saturation that results in a desired effect.
Since this spring I have been experimenting with placing the abstracted figurative masses depicted in my work into an interior space. I am thinking of this interior as both a physical character and psychological space. I am still formulating my thoughts around this exploration, and I know that it is best for me to come to an understanding through the process of making.
What is a day like in the studio for you?
I am an early riser! Most of my days start between 3:45 and 4:30am. After coffee and a period of waking, I find my way to the studio. I like to arrive between 6:00 and 6:30am and I start a studio session with a dedicated transition of arrival into the space. This means writing in my journal and spending time sitting and looking before making any marks.
I usually work until 9:30 or 10:00am and then find my way home for breakfast. After a few hours of rest, I return to the studio for my second session. This usually lasts until 3:30 to 5pm after which I turn to exercising my body and processing the day.
What are you looking at right now and/or reading?
I typically have several books going at once. I read fiction at night and non-fiction in the morning. I just finished Miranda July’s new novel “All Fours” (I highly recommend!) and I just started “Someone else’s Shoes” by Jojo Moyes.
In the morning, I am reading the exhibition catalog “Surrealist Drawing” by Leslie Jones, Isabelle Dervaux, and Susan Laxton as well as “Remarks on Colour” by Ludwig Wittgenstein and during my walk to the studio I am listening to Bell Hooks, “All About Love.”
Where can we find more of your work? (ex. website/insta/gallery/upcoming shows)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amybutowicz/
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