Amanda Besl
She’s so Cosmo Girl!

Artist’s Reception: FRIDAY, February 8th • 6-9PM Exhibition continues through March 8th .

Lyons Wier • Ortt Gallery is pleased to announce Amanda Besl’s second solo exhibition – She’s so Cosmo Girl!

Amanda Besl continues her exploration into the female adolescent world as depicted in teen magazines. She uses imagery drawn from magazines such as Cosmogirl whose content explores the complexities of a cultural aesthetic that fetishizes youth. In her current work, Besl evokes an open-ended narrative while questioning the fictitious lifestyle portrayed as truth via the documentary manner in which her subjects are captured.

Ms. Besl’s small oil paintings average 7” x 10”. She utilizes this small scale to allow a more intimate viewing experience and to recall the source materials history as a photographic image. The work pops from the wall off beveled edges to create a staccato rhythm of frozen suggestive moments. The pieces feel cinematic in nature, and allude to film stills from a grander narrative. The subject matter balances on the fine line between the mundane and the obscure. These paintings are not nostalgic, except as personal nostalgia. They are not apologetic or hedonistic and have any number of possible endings or possibly no ending—just a pause, a breath.

Amanda Besl has exhibited extensively throughout Europe and US. She was recently in Beyond/In Western New York Biennial, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY. She received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2001 and BFA Fine Arts from SUNY Oswego, NY. She currently resides and paints in Buffalo, New York

Amanda J. Besl
b. 1976, Oneida, NY.

EDUCATION:

2001 MFA Painting, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
1998 BFA Fine Arts, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY Painting
1998 BA English Writing Arts, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY
1998 Minor Museum Studies, SUNY Oswego, Oswego, NY

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS: (* Solo Shows)

2008
*She’s So Cosmo Girl, Lyons Wier Ortt Gallery, New York
2007
Beyond/In Western New York Biennial, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
*The Girl With the Most Cake, Artspace Witzenhausen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
SWAB Art Fair, (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery). Barcelona, Spain
Art Brussles 2007, (Aeroplastics Contemporary), Brussels, Belguim
CIRCA Puerto Rico, (Artspace Witzenhausen), San Juan, PR
PULSE New York (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery), New York, NY
Rotterdam Art Fair, (Artspace Witzenhausen), Rotterdam, Netherlands
2006
Consuming Passions: Exquisite Horizons, HallWalls, Buffalo, NY
Scope Miami, (Artspace Witzenhausen), Miami, FL
*Line My Eyes and Call Me Pretty, Galerie Zervudacki, Nice France
It's Not You, It's Me, HallWalls, Buffalo, NY
Berliner Liste 2006, (Artspace Witzenhausen), Berlin, Germany
*Smells Like Teen Rococo, Lyons Wier/Ortt Contemporary
PULSE Miami (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery), Miami, FL
Art212 (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery), New York, NY
Scope Hamptons (Lyons Wier/Ortt Gallery), Hamptons, NY
PULSE New York (Lyonswier Gallery), New York, NY
Scope New York (Aeroplastics Contemporary), Brussels, Belgium
2005
Selected Works, Area Artists 2005, Albright Knox, Buffalo, NY (invitational/juried)
Made in New York, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Gallery, Auburn, NY (juried)
BSA Spring Show, Kenan Center, Lockport, NY (juried)
*When Pink Turns, Buffalo Arts Studio, Buffalo, NY
After Nature, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
2004
Winter, Bryant Street Gallery, Buffalo, NY (invitational)
Winter Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI (invitational)
BSA 108th Juried Catalog Exhibition, Castellani Art Museum, Niagara, NY (juried)
Summer Artist Series, Market Street Gallery, Lockport, NY
Pretty World, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium
Summer Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI (invitational)
Area Artists 2004, Albright Knox, Buffalo, NY
BSA Spring Show, Market Street Gallery, Lockport, NY
Lakeside Statewide, Oswego Art Assoc, Oswego, NY
The Contemporary Portrait, Rye Arts Center, Rye, NY
2003
Figuratively Speaking, Fulton Street Gallery, Troy, NY
Works on Paper National Biennial, Perkinson Gallery, Milikin Univ, Decatur, IL
21st Nat. Small Works Competition, Scohoharie Arts Council, Cobleskill, NY
Summer Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
2002
Art Brussels 2002, (Aeroplastics Contemporary,) Brussels, Belgium
Works for Young Collectors, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
Summer Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI
National Women’s Exhibition, Impact Artist Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Concept to Object, Cade Gallery, Arnold, MD
2001
Winter Show, Lemberg Gallery, Ferndale, MI (invitational)
Impact National, Impact Artist Gallery, Buffalo, NY (juried)
Figurative Works Competition, Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL (juried)
2001
Student Degree Show, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Exhibition 2001: BBAC Faculty, Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center, Birmingham, MI
2000
Assembled Imagery, Edith Barrett Art Gallery, Syracuse Univ, Utica, NY (invitational)
Celebrate Michigan Artists 2000, Paint Creek Cntr for the Arts Rochester, MI (juried)
Bad Drawings, Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Mus. of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI (3 person)
MFA Annual, New American Paintings, Wellesley, MA (juried)
D.M.B. & B. 2000, D’Arcy, Masius, Benton, & Bowles Inc., Troy, MI (juried)
MFA Annual, New American Paintings, Wellesley, MA
Air Quotes, Forum Gallery, Cranbrook Museum of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
1999
* Flight Patterns: Recent Paintings, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center, Auburn, NY
Essential Art, Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, NY (juried)
Made in New York, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Gallery, Auburn, NY (juried)
1996
Shh! We Are All Screaming, Alternative Space Gallery, Syracuse, NY



AWARDS:

2005
1st place, Made in NY, Schweinfurth Memorial Art Gallery, Auburn, NY (juried)
Best in Show, BSA Spring Show, Kenan Center, Lockport, NY (juried)
2002
Artist’s Residency, Great River Art Assoc., Little Falls, MN
Best in Show, Women’s National, Impact Artist Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2001
Best in Show, Impact National, Impact Artist Gallery, Buffalo, NY
2000
Jane Hickey Mem. Merit Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
1998
Grant Arnold Award, SUNY, Oswego, NY (35th Annual Juried)
Hermann Krusi Scholarship for Academic Excellence in Art, SUNY, Oswego, NY