Amanda Reeves

Amanda Reevesʼ paintings push up against boundaries of abstraction and representation. Approaching their construction intuitively and iteratively, Amanda allows the paintings to unfold their own structures, responding to them as they are made. The process of painting mirrors the process of their reading; ones perception evolves over time, adding a temporal aspect to the work that is unique to each viewer and is dependent on what they are bringing to that particular viewing. Using color as a signifier Amanda plays upon individual responses in a manner that leaves meaning open ended. In these paintings the physicality of the shapes and their inferred relationship to the body reflects the sensuality of paint and the beauty of uncomfortable color. The spatial and color relationships within the paintings shift and expand in association with paired and surrounding works, extending perception beyond the frame.

Living near the shore of Lake Ontario, close to the beach in Vancouver and now having a studio in Sausalito, water has long provided both a crucial source of energy and a place of calm for Amanda. Her fascination with natural systems, their networks and the creatures who inhabit them initially drew her to studying marine biology, where she could revel in the fantastical creatures and unknown realms. The rules did not seem to apply to the morphology of life under water. The visuals of strange and brightly colored creatures swaying and moving in the swells and currents embedded itself. These biological systems, so diverse and unique to their surroundings had such exquisite specificity and yet seemed so fantastical; untethered and floating within the space they inhabit, seemingly weightless. Interconnected, related and yet abstract and nonsensical. 

Moving to California brought the importance and urgency of the water to the forefront. The quality of light and the feel of the tides play such an important role in the moods and colors of the work. Having the water be a part of the landscape of her daily life has embedded within Amanda’s studio work. The shapes float freely, unanchored and sometimes chaotic, tumbling over each other. The paintings have whimsy and movement. The language of the shapes become imagined characters in the realm they inhabit, jumbled together, sometimes set apart and at times interwoven and overlapping in ambiguous relationships with each other.

Since graduating with honors from Ontario College of Art & Design University in 2005, Reeves has participated in numerous exhibitions. Her work is in the collections of the Bank of Montreal, Royal Bank of Canada, Medcan, Census Energy and EQ Bank, as well as private collections in Australia, Canada, Mexico, England and the U.S. Amanda was born in England, educated in Canada and now lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.