Soft Sand and Thistle, 2022

Amy Bernays  

Artist Statement:

My landscapes are an idealization, "Sometimes I want to crawl into the landscapes that I create, build a house there or make a sand castle. I see a perfect future, an ideal man, a woman I would like to be, the land I want to return home to." 

I want paint to be paint. I want to see the blobs and swirls of how the image is manufactured. I love it when that daub magically becomes two things, a piece of paint on a canvas and the calming gesture of an animal trainer moving a camel to the left, or the nervous glint on the girls face as she both leans in to her lover and pulls away.

Education:

Foundation, Chelsea School of Fine Art 1997-98
BA Honors, Central St Martins 1998 -2001

Awards & Distinctions:

Art in Embassies, Equatorial Guinea 2020- (Amelia Bernays Pitti)

Shortlisted Mercury Art Award 2006

Exhibitions:

"Life in Color" solo show at Chop Chop Salon La Brea Ave Los Angeles 2019
Shifting Narratives; LA City Hall and Mount St Mary's University, 2019
Open i Art Space, Santa Barbara, 2019
Art for Youth, The Royal College of Art, London, 2010
Project Ethos, Hollywood, 2010
Cannibal Flower, Los Angeles, 2010
Art for Youth, The Mall Gallery, London, October 2009, 2008
Create fixate, Broken, Downtown Los Angeles, July 2009
Centered on the Center, Huntingdon Beach Art Center, Orange County, California 2008
Affordable Art Fair, London 2007 - 2009
Ideal Home Show, London 2006 - 2009
Short listed: Mercury Art Prize, London 2006
BA (Honors) Degree Show, Central St Martins College, 2001
Exhibit 99, Annual showcase of fine art from all London Institute colleges, 1999