ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist, I see the complex interconnectedness that we all share as scattered fragments of personal experiences and perceptions that continuously gather throughout history. Much of my work is formed from how I view fragments and fragmentation—the isolated and incomplete parts that make up a whole. Each of us can create our own perception of reality by editing, rewriting, or omitting fragments from our own history. In my paintings, the interaction between fragments— both literal and metaphorical—are reflected in dense flecks of color, light against dark, muted against vivid. These flecks come together to create an image that is simultaneously unified and fractured, reflecting both the alienation of the subject and the unity of the subject and society. Drawn from the complex relationships between the individual and the whole, my art focuses on the societally imposed challenges that women have historically experienced and continue to experience today.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Kiley Ames lives and works in Los Angeles and Oakland, CA. She received her BA in History from UCLA, a BFA from Art Center College of Design and an MFA from the New York Academy of Art. Ames has been awarded residencies in Beijing and Shanghai as well as Leipzig, Germany. She is the recipient of multiple grants including the Barbara Deming Memorial Grant, Not Real Art Grant, Leslie T. and Frances U. Posey Foundation and the Vermont Studio Center. In addition to her own studio practice, she was a freelancer at Annie Leibovitz Studio for almost ten years. Recent exhibitions include her first museum exhibition, Figures, at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C., In the Labyrinth, New York University Kimmel Galleries, It Figures: The Body in Art, Arc Gallery, Chicago ILL; States of Reality, Gallery 66, Cold Springs, NY, Postcards from the Edge, Sikkema Jenkins Gallery, New York, One Year of Resistance, The Untitled Space, New York, Facing Contemporary Issues at The Tides Galleries, San Francisco, Purely Abstract, at Kavanagh Gallery, Illinois, Gesture and Motion at Site:Brooklyn, New York, and was selected to create a public work for the Los Angeles Metro, More People Than You Know. She recently published her first monograph, “Fighting the Good Fight: A Breast Cancer Journey.”
© Kiley Ames