Margery Amdur
"Amass"
September 7-29, 2012

September sees Projects Gallery celebrating its eighth season opener with the second solo show of paintings and assemblages of Margery Amdur.  Ms. Amdur is well known to the Philadelphia art world for her imaginative mixed media constructions.  Using American kitsch as a launch pad for immense and complex contemporary art constructs, her works come alive with innovation, sensitivity and creative verve.  As she enters the world of kitsch, she also touches on traditional women’s art-making techniques and household games, such as paint-by-number kits.  All of this comes together in large-scale works on paper and innovative collages.  Ms. Amdur is neither a pure painter, yet she uses painting strategies; a printmaker, although she employs numerous printmaking processes; a sculptor, yet she frequently works openly on the floor and wall as would a classical sculptor; nor a textile artist, though her works flow filled with textiles and elements essential to the textile artist.  She has, at times, referred to herself as an installation artist, a painter and a sculptor; but in reality these titles all fall far from the mark when describing the unique form that has evolved into the Margery Amdur we see here.  In short, she is a builder of images, often seeming to build them right in front of our eyes.

Margery Amdur
"Bloom"
October 3 - November 15, 2008

Projects Gallery proudly announces “Bloom”, the inaugural solo exhibition of mixed-media artist Margery Amdur. Well known for her impressive, layered, three-dimensional acrylic resin assemblages, “Bloom” debuts a new series of works that play upon her familiar cut paper and paint-by-numbers motif while utilizing a variety of materials. Rather than the trapped-in-amber solidity of the resin series, these new works are liberated and appear to float freely. Layers and layers of petal-delicate Mylar and acetate conceal and reveal paint-by-number floral imagery. The labor-intensive process is as important to the work as is the final product, and it is the tension between the materials and the decidedly feminine imagery that captivates the eye.  Although wall-oriented, Amdur constructs the pieces in “Bloom” in a manner similar to her renowned installation process.  According to Amdur she “ . . . never wanted to be a flower painter. I always associated it with Sunday painters. I must now reconcile this with how often floral imagery is central in my work.” “Bloom” is truly the blossoming fruition of a sophisticated body of work.

Drawing from the perceived separation of art and craft, Amdur explores her interest in multi-dimensional structure. She draws upon a wealth of materials, including frosted Mylar, clear acetate, acrylic paint, transfer images, paint-by-number canvas boards, bees wax and resin. Through her skillful hands, the materials are recontextualized, as the artist enlarges and abstracts her deceptively familiar templates. Playing with transparent and translucent, the pre-existing image and the vision of the artist, Amdur takes the traditional form of painting and expands its definition to embrace greater issues within the contemporary dialogue. Through the veiling of layers, a tension is created between the abstract and representational; and the artist’s meditative working process emanates throughout. The resulting images are visually seductive moments frozen in time.