The Hunter Museum of American Art's newest year-long exhibit, "Passing Through", features the works of Birmingham-based artist Amy Pleasant.
Pleasant’s large-scale canvases and graphic paintings overtake the walls of the Hunter’s historic mansion stairwell, welcoming visitors to the early American galleries.
Her figurative silhouettes deal with complex subjects, connecting traditions of American portraiture with contemporary themes of identity and human behaviors.
"My work includes painting, drawing, and ceramic sculpture, all exploring the body and language through repetition," Amy explains. "Adopting the structure of a diagram or list, I explore the fragmented figure as sign or symbol."
With a limited palette and an economy of line, she draws and redraw images like writing a letter, documenting essential, universal motions and human behaviors.
"My stream of consciousness approach to drawing allows a freedom in the evolution of the image and I am interested in how this creates a visual language over time, like an alphabet," Amy says.
Most recently, she has been developing a series of un-stretched paintings that hang like banners from grommets.
"In this current state of the world and political climate, it has been imperative for individuals to express their outrage with markers and poster board," Amy notes. "I wanted these paintings to function in the same way, many displaying images of the female body, drawn across the canvas like pictograms.
Amy Pleasant has been recognized by such prestigious organizations as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and Joan Mitchell Foundation.