Whitehot Recommends: Hunter Amos at Anna Zorina Gallery

Installation view. Copyright: Hunter Amos. Courtesy: Anna Zorina Gallery, New York City. Photography: JSP Art Photography.

By WM February 8, 2024

From the press release:

Anna Zorina Gallery is pleased to present Hunter Amos’s debut New York solo exhibition, Rough Hold. The show features the artist's latest paintings that depict the resonant existential struggle of contending with confinement. Amos’s paintings focus on figures in various levels of abstraction that symbolize the dichotomy of liberation and containment. The paintings set a stage for nuanced and ambiguous engagement, prompting contemplation of whether the figures are endeavoring to fit within the established boundaries or daring to break through the limits of the picture plane.

Over the past two years, this series has developed into a profound reflection of the artist's navigation through new techniques, materials and approaches. The search for transformative methods has resulted in a heightened understanding of expressing identity in forms that extend beyond bodily representation. This evolution mirrors the artist's psychological journey, enriched by the experience of relocating to a new city. The significant move has not only expanded his physical horizons but has opened doors to previously elusive and abstract concepts.

Personal and artistic transitions form the cornerstone of the exhibition. The artist's recent experiences and lifestyle shifts are manifested through an exploration of painterly and sculptural methods, exemplified by the fracturing and expanding of the canvas into angular perimeters that impose a sense of rigidity on the subject. Meanwhile, the incorporation of diverse media including cement, sand, oil and acrylic paints imparts a varied surface texture that adds a physical and psychological depth to the dynamic compositions and tangled amalgamations of form. The artist’s profound encounters and transformative experiences have prompted Amos to document his artistic journey, capturing the inherent chaos, experimentalism and tenacity that underlie the foundation of artistic growth. WM