Amanda Means

AMANDA MEANS

AMANDA MEANS

I was raised on a farm in Marion, NY, a small Upstate rural community. During my childhood, I loved being surrounded by the changing seasons and weather, the shifting light on the fields and in the woods. I remember walking through our apple orchards in spring – the sweet smell of trees full of blossoms, the hum of bees, the warmth of the sun…

Our cobblestone farmhouse was in the middle of one hundred acres of apple orchards. Built in the early 1800s, it was constructed with small palm-sized stones naturally rounded by the lapping waves on the shores of Lake Ontario. My sensibility as an artist is woven from a deep connection to this childhood on the farm. I slept in a tree house in summer, and built little nature worship shrines of sticks, mud and stones in the woods.

In this series of water glass images, I am exploring the interaction of glass, light and water. I do not use either a camera or film to make these photographs. I work with an old 8 x 10-inch horizontal wooden enlarger whose lens is pointed toward the adjacent wall onto which I tack a large sheet of photographic paper. With wood and a black cloth reminiscent of the shroud needed to focus a view-camera in bright light, I have constructed a large chamber, lined with white paper, between the powerful lamp and the lens. Into that chamber, I place an actual water glass through whose surfaces (back and front), the light passes in proportion to their translucency. The result is a negative image in which the parts of the water glass that block or absorb the most light appear lightest in the print.

Most photography captures reflected light. I alter this traditional approach by working with the light that passes through the water glasses. This is a very different kind of light. It allows one to see all sorts of overlapping detail (scratches, chips, air bubbles…) on the front, the interior, and the backside of the water glass. If the water is very cold, there is a great deal of condensation that forms. These sweaty drips are visually very rich and beautiful. With this approach, the whole interior of the glass is illuminated showing a much more lively, three-dimensional appearance containing a whole world of activity and detail.

This exploration of glass, light and water transforms these drinking glasses -- some old, scratched and chipped, some brand new and perfect -- into images that are mysterious and powerful. I often print these images very large, up to 40 x 50 inches. These large prints retain an intimacy that relates to the true scale of an actual water glass, yet, the more closely you look, the more you might see a night sky, or perhaps a surface of chaotic scratches that appears to become a drawing, somewhat reminiscent of Cy Twombly. To me, it is this tension between the everyday and the monumental that makes these images so intriguing.

(p. 18-19)

Water Glass 30, 2021

x 18 inches

of 20

x 26 inches

of 10

of 5

Water Glass 31, 2021

gelatin print

x 18 inches

of 20

x 26 inches

of 10

x 38 inches

of 5

Water Glass 32, 2021

gelatin print

x 18 inches

of 20

x 26 inches

of 10

x 38 inches

of 5

Water Glass 36, 2021

gelatin print

x 18 inches

of 20

x 26 inches

of 10

inches

of 5

Water Glass 37, 2021

18 inches

of 20

inches

of 10

of 5

Water Glass 54, 2021

of 20

of 10

of

Amanda Means Abbreviated CV

Born 1945, Marion, NY

EDUCATION

BA, Cornell University, 1969

Zone System Workshops, Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY, 1971, 1972

MFA, SUNY Buffalo (Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, N.Y.), 1978 Apeiron Workshops, (intensive study with Ralph Gibson), Millerton, NY, 1979

SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021 Light Years!, University Art Gallery/University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA

2018 FOLDED REFOLDED CRUSHED CRACKED, Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA

2015 Biophilia, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY

2013 Glass + Light, Joseph Bellows Gallery, La Jolla, CA

2011 Glass + Light, Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, VA

Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA

2009 Grounds for Sculpture, Trenton, NJ

Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston, MA

Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY

2008 Amanda Means Polaroid Light Bulbs, Bergdorf Goodman, NYC

Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York, NY

St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN

“Looking at Leaves,” The Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, MA Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA

2006 Gallery 339, Philadelphia, PA

SELECT GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2022 Estonian House, New York, NY

2020 Ultimate, Phillips London, London, UK

Wild Things: Disrupting the Photographic Archive, CEPA Gallery, Buffalo, NY

2019 Ultimate, Phillips London, London, UK

View Find 8, 2019, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

2018 The Extended Moment, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

2017 Singular Repetitions, University Art Gallery/University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA

VIEW FIND: Photography, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA

Black and White, Nina Freudenheim Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Women in Colour, Rubber Factory, NYC

2016 Chemistry – Explorations in Abstract Photography, Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY

2014 In Focus, Flynn Gallery, Greenwich, CT

AWARDS & HONORS

Guggenheim Fellowship, Recipient in Photography, 2017

Master black and white photographic printer specializing in oversize prints, (1985-1995) Trustee, The John Coplans Trust (2003 -)

SELECT COLLECTIONS

Addison Gallery of American Art Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY

Avon Collection of Women Photographers, New York, NY

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, England Nicola Erni Collection, Switzerland

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA St. Lawrence University, Canton, NY

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Whitehead Collection of Art, Boston, MA

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

W.M. Hunt - Collection Dancing Bear, New York, NY

AMANDA MEANS