Born in Chesapeake, Virginia in 1975, Brett Amory studied at the Academy of Art and received a BFA in Fine Art in 2005. He is the recipient of a gold medal from Online Artists Interviews, an international juried art competition (2009).   Brett began working on the painting series entitled “Waiting” in 2001.  The series depicts the urban individual’s yearning for presence and the seeming impossibility of attaining it. The paintings portray commuters in transit immersed in either a quiet, even hopeful state or, alternately, an anguish of unfulfilled anticipation.

Of this series Amory says:  “Waiting” depicts the urban individual’s yearning for presence and the seeming impossibility of attaining it. The paintings portray commuters in transit immersed in either a quiet, even hopeful state or, alternately, an anguish of unfulfilled anticipation.  At first, the series, begun in 2001, depicted travelers waiting underground. But as the paintings evolved, the people ceased to be exclusively travelers, and began to emphasize figures selected from anonymous snaphots of city streets. Although the experience of waiting remains, the perception of it has changed from one of mundane task to one leavened with transcendence.

The series has also charted the evolution of an artist—the reductive elements of the compositions provide an outward echo of the inner states of the figures.  By reducing the elements of the painting as far as possible, a frozen moment is extended.

Lastly, I have developed favored motifs in the series, a kind of visual music, such as repetition of a human image, to show not only the passage of time but of the human being through it.”

Amory has lived in the Bay Area of California for the past 15 years currently residing in Oakland. In the past year he’s had solo shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, New York and now, San Jose.

To see more, visit BrettAmory.com.

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