Amanda Kates has a disquieting sense that she is invisible, and motherhood has only exacerbated this feeling. Kates makes paintings and drawings that function as relics that both prove her existence and describe it. The imagery is culled from thousands of snapshots from her daily life, including photographs of meals she’s prepared for her children. She paints on burlap, which demands a physicality - the paintbrush must be pressed and dragged, or twisted against the burlap’s coarse fibers. Working in this way imbues the work with an aggressiveness that contradicts the otherwise benign snapshots of domestic life. These images of innocuous, often overlooked moments bristle with color and textural agitation, demanding to be seen.
Amanda Kates lives and works in Washington DC. She has exhibited throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, including shows with Studio Gallery, and the DC Arts Center in Washington DC, as well as Chashama, and Rare Gallery in New York. Kates earned a BFA in painting from Binghamton University, and an MFA from SUNY Albany.