Current Exhibitions

 

“Ghost Count”
Amanda Burnham

Cody Gallery, Marymount University
Curated by Sal Pirrone

January 17 – February 26
Reception: Friday, January 27, 6-8pm

“Ghost Count” is a solo exhibition at Cody Gallery by artist and educator, Amanda Burnham.

In magic, a “ghost count” is the name of a technique for hiding a particular card. Much like a
card trick, the works in “Ghost Count” rely on misdirection: competing fragmentary images
muscle to the surface, at times cancelling each other out, distracting from, or defying their
sublimated narratives. Exuberant, manic line and color mask darker undercurrents.

Burnham makes drawings and large, site specific installations which are also drawings. The
former ink and water media works often begin as anecdotal moments either recorded or
observed from life, and frequently evolve to enfold idiosyncratic personal iconography that
emphasizes the darkly comic and absurd. The latter are motivated by similar concerns, typically
composed of hundreds of quick, gestural acrylic and flashe paint sketches made with a fat brush
that are then cut and collaged onto both built armatures and the existing surfaces of a space.
The installations are sometimes further animated with embedded lighting. The effect is
somewhere between a comic book and a stage set.

Burnham’s work has been exhibited widely. Selected venues include the Berman Museum
(PA), the Phillips Museum (PA), the Delaware Contemporary, the American University Art
Museum (DC), the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art (CT), the Toledo Museum of Art
(OH), the Gershman Gallery (Philadelphia), Volta (Basel, Switzerland), Marianne Boesky
Gallery (NYC), Benrimon Contemporary (NYC), and Dorsch Gallery (Miami). Among
numerous honors, she is a four time recipient of Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland
State Art Council, and a Rubys Grant recipient. Selected residencies include the Embassy of
Foreign Artists (Geneva, Switzerland), the Swatch Art Peace Hotel (Shanghai, China), and
Paper Machine (New Orleans, LA). Her artist book “Quorum Call” was published by Antenna
in 2018; a self-published artist book, “Rage Faces”, is part of the permanent collections of the
National Museum of Women in the Arts and the New York Public Library. Burnham holds a
Bachelor of Arts in Visual and Environmental Studies from Harvard University and a Master
of Fine Arts in Painting and Printmaking from the Yale University School of Art.