Amanda Means was raised in a small Upstate New York farming community.
She moved to New York City over twenty-five years ago. Her artwork
reflects a sense of nature in this crowded, urban environment.
Initially, Means photographed tangles of underbrush in the countryside
and printed the results in her lower Manhattan darkroom. The tangles
represented the chaotic environment that surrounded her. Now Means
continues to explore the duality of natural and human built environments
by photographing light bulbs and water glasses. She explores how
the mysterious presence of natural forces can be found even in
these small, mass-produced objects.
Education includes BA Cornell University, 1969;
MFA, SUNY Buffalo (Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, N.Y.),
1978; Apeiron Workshops, Millerton, NY, 1979, Intensive study
with Ralph Gibson.
Selected collections include Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC;
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; The Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; Museum of Fine
Arts, Boston, MA; MIT List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Boston, MA;
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
NY; Avon Collection of Women Photographers, NYC; Robinson and
Nancy Grover Collection, Hartford, CT; W.M.Hunt - Collection Dancing
Bear, NYC; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; National Gallery
of Canada, Ottawa, Canada; National Museum of Photography, Film
and Television, Bradford, England; St. Lawrence University, Canton,
NY; Whitehead Collection of Art, Boston, MA.
One person exhibitions include Grounds for Sculpture,
Trenton, NJ (2009); Howard Yezerski Gallery (2009); Nina Freudenheim
Gallery, (2009); Bergdorf Goodman (2008); Ricco/Maresca Gallery
(2008); St. Olaf College (2008); The Harvard Museum of Natural
History, Cambridge, MA (2008); Gallery 339, Philadelphia (2008,
2006); Howard Yezerski Gallery, Boston (2000, 2003); Nina Freudenheim
Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2003); HastedHunt Gallery, NYC (1998, 2001);
Metta Galeria, Madrid, Spain (1999); Gremillion Co., Houston,
Texas (1998); Zilkha Gallery, Center for the Arts, Wesleyan University,
Middlebury, CT (1983).
Group exhibitions include Nina Freudenheim Gallery (2010); Howard
Yezerski Gallery (2009); The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2006);
Ricco/Maresca Gallery, NYC (1997, 2008); HastedHunt Gallery, NYC
(2000); Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, NY (2003); Pamela
Auchincloss Project Space (2001); Islip Art Museum, Baldwin, NY
(2001); Richard Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University, Canton,
NY (1999); Zelda Cheatle Gallery, London (1999); Museum of Fine
Arts, Houston, TX (1999); Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, NY (1999);
Dorsky Gallery, NYC (1999); Pace University Gallery, Pleasantville,
NY (1999); International Center of Photography, NYC (1997).
Teaching and lecturing includes SUNY Plattsburgh
(1989); Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC, Canada
(1992); University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada (1992); St. Lawrence
University, Canton, NY (1999); International Center of Photography,
NY, NY (2000); Parsons School of Design, NY, NY (2001); University
of Memphis, Memphis, TN (2001); Pratt Institute, NY, NY (2002);
Harvard Museum of Natural History (2008).
Publications include fluence -- Ricco/Maresca
Gallery online magazine (August 2010); The New York Times (November
2006); The New York Times (October 2005); Exploring Color Photography,
McGraw-Hill, (2004); pdn (2004); 2wice Magazine, GLOW (2002);
Harry Abrams, Photography's Antiquarian Avant-Garde -- The New
Wave in Old Processes (2002); Oprah Magazine, The Brain (2002);
Harper's Magazine (1998); New Yorker Magazine ( 2007, 2001).
Related professional experience includes Contributing
Editor to BOMB Magazine (1985 - present); Master black and white
photographic printer specializing in oversize prints (1985 - 1995).
Printing clients include Robert Mapplethorpe, Roni Horn, Smithsonian
Institution and Petah Coyne. Trustee, The John Coplans Trust (2003
- ). Nominee Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2005). Recently
moved from Manhattan to Beacon, NY.
