Featured Artist: Maria Amalia
Amalia’s work is part of the exhibition « Movement » on display in 100state through April 3rd.
On her work, Amalia states « Working intuitively, I draw upon material culture and the natural environment to create beautiful marks that refer to specific memories of lived experiences. »
Maria Amalia holds a bachelor’s degree in General Art with a minor in Visual Communications from Judson University and an MFA in Textile Art and Design from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. For the past four years, Maria Amalia has been creating paper and textile objects that refer to memories of lived experiences. While constantly honing her ability to intelligently compose, Maria Amalia has developed a process for manipulating the wet pulp that allows her to work freely, creating marks and passages that evolve organically through a repetitive process of building an image with layered, ripped, painted, and collaged forms resulting in complex surfaces that carry rich color and texture passages.
Having more than 12 years of experience working with craft communities in Latin America in product development, her art practice is built on a foundation that includes a commitment to the highest standards of craftsmanship in making, intellectual curiosity, and constant searching for authenticity and relevance.
From a very young age Maria Amalia participated in community projects with her parents, observing, listening, learning from their workshops and becoming conscious of the importance of the participation of women and minority groups in processes of social change. At the age of ten years old, her voice as an artist was heard for the first time in a National juried art competition in Honduras. Her drawing of a woman crying and kneeling next to her drunk husband, who was laying on a dirt road being licked by a stray dog, won an award. Until this day, she continues to be passionate about using art and design as a tool for social justice.
You can check out more of Maria’s work on her website, here.
