Artist Statement
“Any landscape is composed not only of what lies before our eyes but what lies within our heads.”
– Donald W. Merging, geographer
Presently the idea of landscape fascinates me for its endless compromise with modernity and how it inevitably becomes informed by architecture, hence human intervention. The bulk of my work resides in the study of residual spaces left at the juncture where indigenous cultures, virgin territories or unclaimed spaces meet with industrialism. By channeling these conceptions by memory onto pieces through an abstract lens, I play on their formal aspects and their materiality and, through an abstract painter’s struggles, try to convey the intangible feel and the subtle characteristics of such universes.
Evoking the passage of time over matter and the ambivalent sculptures that emanate from such settings is a continuous aim. One could say that architecture and abstraction find a common ground in my art through ambiguous sites similar to dreamscapes, resembling unsolved maps to some unknown territories. I am intrigued by appearances of what is left behind and how these places and things evolve onto to their own, way pass what we intended them to be Rust, water stains, natures hues, copper, dirt, sky and water.
Once stripped of all their figurative elements, my abstract landscapes are meant to evoke the quiet rundown splendor of things we foresee or never bother to look at differently.
Intricate spaces. Secret places. Glittter and gloom.
My technique is based on a more sensory and physical method than a rigid conceptual one. I always strive to explore different textures, effects and shapes, allowing the paint to find a dynamic of its own by letting “accidents” happen. Spontaneity, memory, flow.
I have always believed that my paintings should give up their function as instruments of pure representation and therefore break free from any system of depiction to evolve towards being their own object, one that is autonomous and that breaks free from the rational world. My inspirations have varied greatly throughout the years, ranging from the classic figures of American Abstract Expressionism and Color Field (Motherwell, Twombly, Rothko, Klei) and at times also turning myself towards artists such as Richard Diebenkorn or David Hockney. Lately it is in photography, in the works of Stephen Shore, Miroslav Tichy or Paul Fusco that I turn to, seeking compositional ideas along with color palette explorations.
View Amelie Grooscors collection at the Stravitz Gallery.