Amanda Burnham (American, b. 1979), Neighborhood Watch (installation detail), 2016, acrylic, flashe, paper, cardboard, and LEDs, 5 vignettes, each approx. 10 x 10 x 5 feet, Site specific installation for Fall Solos, Arlington Art Center, Arlington, VA.
Saturday, October 10, through Sunday, February 14
Figge Art Museum, 225 West Second Street, Davenport IA
With the acclaimed artist creating a site-specific installment for the Davenport venue, Amanda Burnham: Everything to Everyone will be on display in the Figge Art Museum's Gildehaus Gallery from October 10 through February 14, the Baltimore-based artist a draftsman who uses drawing as the foundation for large-scale pieces that transform her observations into immersive environments.
Burnham's work often begins as quick sketches inspired by chance moments encountered while moving through the cityscape. Through repeated reworking, these drawings evolve into a highly personal iconography and distinctive visual language. The artist's installations are built from hundreds of rapid, gestural drawings made using acrylic paint. These drawings are then collaged onto armatures and directly onto the gallery walls, accumulating into dense, layered environments that surround the viewer, blending elements of dreamscapes, comic books, and theatrical stage sets. For her installation at the Figge, Burnham will depict the female figure embedded within the urban landscape to interrogate the forces shaping women's lives today.
As the artist says in her biography at AmandaBurnham.com: "I make 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 as I explore the city around me, 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.
"My work has been exhibited widely; selected venues include the Walters Museum of Art, Volta Art Fair (Basel, Switzerland), the Delaware Contemporary, the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, the Berman Museum of Art, the Phillips Museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, Artisphere, the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, the Cranbrook Institute of Art, Benrimon Contemporary (NYC), Bridge Gallery (NYC), Christina Ray Gallery (NYC), Dorsch Gallery (Miami) and GV/AS Gallery (Brooklyn, NY). Regional venues include the Creative Alliance, School 33, the Silber Gallery, the Julio Art Gallery, the Gormley Gallery, MICA, d center, the Stamp Gallery, Maryland Art Place, Hamiltonian Gallery (DC), the Arlington Contemporary (DC), Visarts (Rockville), Hillyer Art Space (DC), and Transformer (DC).
"I was an artist in residence at the Embassy of Foreign Artists, Geneva, Switzerland, in 2015, at the Swatch Art Peace Hotel, Shanghai, China, in 2016, and at Paper Machine, New Orleans, LA, in 2018. I was the 2025 Sondheim Art Prize winner, and have been the recipient of a Rubys Grant (2014), a Creative Baltimore Fund Award (2014), Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council in 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2019, and 2021. My work was featured in the 2016 South edition of New American Paintings. My artist book "Rage Faces" (2016) is part of the collections of the National Museum of Women in Art and the New York Public Library; another artist book, "Quorum Call", was published by Antenna in 2018. A graduate of Harvard University (BA) and Yale University (MFA), I am now a Professor at Towson University."
Prior to the unveiling of her new installation, visiting artist Burnham will participate in an Artist Talk at the Figge Art Museum on October 8, with the Figge Bar open at 4 p.m. (cards only) and the program starting at 6 p.m.
Amanda Burnham: Everything to Everyone will be on display in the Davenport venue's Gildehaus Gallery from October 10 through February 14, with regular museum hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays through Saturdays (10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays) and noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Museum admission is $8-14, and more information is available by calling (563)326-7804 and visiting FiggeArtMuseum.org.
