Amanda Gruenwald’s New Paintings are expanses of glowing colour. Rather than simply acting representationally, here colour itself is the subject, as Gruenwald’s distinctive shapes collide, bleed, abut, and fray into one another.

With this work Gruenwald has drawn from her study of the high period of American Modernism; however this is only part of the picture as key to her new works is a kind of deconstruction, or deductive painting. With each work, arriving at the final composition is as much a matter of subtraction as addition. During the process of making, Gruenwald will simplify the complexity of earlier passages and marks with a semi-visible erasure and overpainting. This gives the artist great freedom of chance, improvisation and experimentation at the early stages of the work, which can later be wrangled with until a final composition – that appears simple and inevitable – is discovered.

BIOGRAPHY

Born: Wellington

Lives: Auckland

Education: Bachelor of Fine Arts from Elam School of Fine Art, Auckland University, 2012

Awards/Distinctions: Gordon Harris Painting Prize (2012); Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust grant (2012)

Public Exhibitions: Exquisite Corpse, George Fraser Gallery, Auckland (2012)

Publications/Articles: ‘Beguiled by bold brush work’ by Terry McNamara, The New Zealand Herald, Jul 2013