Amy Sillman -Wednesday Lectures

New York based Amy Sillman, born in 1955 in Detroit, Michigan, earned her BFA in 1979 from the School of Visual Arts New York City, then later received her FMA at Bart College in 1995.

I like the abstract yet playfulness of her work, she creates very gestural abstract drawings or paintings, then maybe adds some details or creates almost a story with them. I enjoy the idea of ‘ animation in paintings activated by the viewer’. A line of individual ‘stills’ that work together to depict a hand painted animation of sorts, seen as you walk across the viewing.

It’s interesting how Sillman uses humour in her work. She has created completely made up ‘keys’ for her abstract pieces, showing what each feature of the artwork may be, this may be to encourage thoughs about the piece or maybe to comment on the fact that not everything in art has a meaning. These keys are always displayed where the artwork cannot be seen so they cannot be seen together leaving you questioning. I also like her ‘13 possible endings’ for some of her paintings, a complimentary animation of where the artwork could progress to theoretically.

Amy Sillman often includes zines in her exhibitions, often sold for $1, which contain other pieces of work, keys or other satirical art along with essays explaining her thought processes. This zine purchasing offers a more personal aspect to the exhibitions, something directly from the artist, something you can take home to better understand the body of work, to keep and appreciate.

Overall, I really liked Amy Sillman’s work. It’s taught me to think more playfully about the meaning behind art, and to have a joke with some things. I like the interactivity of the exhibitions, being able to ‘play’ the ‘animations’ so to say at any pace or way depending on how you use the exhibition itself. She also briefly mentioned at the end of the talk about her interest during lockdown of finding flowers and painting them exactly as she could, literally every day. These images were made using inks and I am going to give that sort of style a go in the future.