GHADA AMER

The exhibition features a large, monochrome thread on canvas titled White – RFGA. The transgressive erotic embroideries, which brought Amer to prominence in the 1990s, depict explicit female forms with the delicacy of needle and thread. The choice of this subject matter, rendered using thread and acrylic paint, speak to Amer’s interest in subverting assumptions related to the roles and attributes assigned to women, rejecting both religious-driven laws that govern women’s bodies as well as second-wave feminist ideas that reject expressions of conventional femininity as an avenue to empowerment.

The presentation also includes two works on paper made in collaboration with Reza Farkhondeh. Since 2001, Amer and Farkhondeh have collaborated together in New York City on an ongoing series. Using varying techniques and materials, such as fabric, masking tape, and watercolours, the artists exchange works between their studios—the confident eroticism of Amer’s work commingling with the shapes and beauty of nature of Farkhondeh and vice versa.

In 2014, Amer expanded her repertoire to include ceramics. For the painterly, image-driven ceramics, such as Paravent Avec Amour, the artist uses clay as a flat surface to create a link with the imagery that populates her paintings. In so doing, Amer expands her mixed-media repertoire onto this medium, imbuing these works with the same loaded commentary as her canvases and works on paper.

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Ghada Amer (b. 1963 in Cairo, Egypt) lives and works in New York. Her most recent institutional exhibitions include shows at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico (2020) and at Dallas Contemporary (2018). Her works belong to many public collections, such as the Art Institute of Chicago; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Guggenheim Museum, Abu Dhabi; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf and the Sammlung Goetz, Munich, amongst others. Notable presentations of Amer’s ‘Gardens’ series have been showcased at Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré, Tours, France (2018) and as part of Frieze Sculpture (2020), in partnership with Tishman Speyer, at the Rockefeller Center.