Amanda Burnham

Amanda Burnham (Toledo, OH, 1979) makes drawings and large, site specific installations which are also drawings. The former ink and water media works often begin as anecdotal moments either recorded or observed during explorations of the city, and frequently evolve to enfold idiosyncratic personal iconography that emphasizes the darkly comic and absurd. The latter are motivated by similar concerns. They are (usually) composed of hundreds of quick, gestural acrylic and flashe paint sketches made with a fat brush that are then cut and collaged onto both built armatures and the existing surfaces of a space; these are sometimes further animated with embedded lighting. The effect is somewhere between a comic book and a stage set.

Burnham's work has been exhibited widely. Selected venues include the Berman Museum (PA), the Philips Museum (PA), the Delaware Contemporary, the Gershman Gallery (Philadelphia), the American University Art Museum (DC), the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (CT), Volta (Basel, Switzerland), Marianne Boesky Gallery (NYC), Benrimon Contemporary (NYC), and Dorsch Gallery (Miami). Among numerous honors, she is a three time recipient of Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Art Council and a Rubys Grant recipient. She has been artist in residence at the Embassy of Foreign Artists (Geneva, Switzerland), the Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, China), and Paper Machine (New Orleans, LA). Her artist book, "Quorum Call" was published by Antenna in 2018; a self published artist book, "Rage Faces", is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the New York Public Library. Burnham holds BA and MFA degrees from Harvard and Yale (respectively) and is a professor of Art + Design at Towson University.