Bio
Amy Nathan is an artist working in sculpture, painting and installation; her practice asks questions about how meaning can be expressed through visual languages. Nathan’s work is guided by ideas such as the gendered nature of politics and power, classical mythology and contemporary literature, and the body’s visceral reaction to its environment. Her work has been exhibited at CULT Aimee Friberg, Headlands Center for the Arts, /room/, Saint Joseph’s Arts Society, AORA London, Traywick Contemporary, Root Division, Facebook, and the International Sculpture Center. Nathan’s work has appeared in Artforum, Art Maze Magazine, New American Paintings, Sculpture Magazine, and was featured with Juxtapoz. She holds an MFA from Mills College and was a Graduate Fellow at Headlands Center for the Arts. Her 2019 solo exhibition was reviewed as a “Critic’s Pick” in Artforum, in which Emily Wilson noted, “Though their references are as wide-ranging as their forms, Nathan’s works exhibit a playful hand adept at using symbols to tell some of the oldest but still urgent stories of human relations.”
CV
EDUCATION
2018 / MFA, Mills College, Oakland, CA
1995 / BA and BFA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022 / Slipknot Loophole, CULT Aimee Friberg, San Francisco, CA
2021 / Takming Chuang and Amy Nathan, /room/ at Slash Art, San Francisco, CA
2020 / Mani Pedi, Local Language, Oakland, CA
2019 / Glyph Slipper, CULT Aimee Friberg, San Francisco, CA
2018 / The Society of Marks, Slide Space 123, Oakland, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 / Physics & Fiction, Saint Joseph’s Arts Society, San Francisco, CA
2021 / Sapiens/Stories, CULT Bureau, Oakland, CA
2021 / Tales of Metamorphosis, CULT Aimee Friberg with 8-Bridges, San Francisco, CA
2021 / Janus II, CULT Aimee Friberg with Fuseproject, San Francisco, CA
2020 / The Path/AORA II, AORA, London, UK
2020 / We’re all in this together, CULT Aimee Friberg, San Francisco, CA
2020 / Intersect Aspen, CULT Aimee Friberg, Aspen, CO
2019 / She was moving, even when she stood still, Traywick Contemporary, Berkeley, CA
2019 / The Resistant Gesture, Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA
2019 / The Ordinary Instant: Graduate Fellowship Exhibition, Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, CA
2019 / Art Market San Francisco, CULT Aimee Friberg, San Francisco, CA
2019 / The International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition, Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park and Museum, Hamilton, OH
2018 / Introductions, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2018 / Art Toronto, CULT Aimee Friberg, Toronto, Canada
2018 / Seattle Art Fair, CULT Aimee Friberg, Seattle, WA
2018 / Female Trouble, CULT Aimee Friberg, San Francisco, CA
2018 / Bay Area MFA, ArtSource Consulting, San Francisco, CA
2018 / RELAY 2, Slide Space 123, Oakland, CA
2018 / Figure 8, Mills College Art Museum, Oakland, CA
2017 / Sculpture as a Verb, Underline Projects, Berkeley, CA
2017 / Neighbors, Embark Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2017 / Blue/Print, Slide Space 123, Oakland, CA
2015 / Botanica, Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA
2015 / HERE, Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley, CA
2011 / Prints and Drawings, Lola, Berkeley, CA
2010 / Penta, Vessel Gallery, Oakland, CA
RESIDENCIES AND AWARDS
2023 / The Space Program, Artist in Residence, San Francisco, CA
2020 / Local Language, Artist in Residence, Oakland, CA
2019 / Facebook, Artist in Residence
2018-19 / Headlands Center for the Arts, Graduate Fellowship, Sausalito, CA
2018 / The Jay DeFeo MFA Prize at Mills College / Jurors: Eungie Joo, Curator of Contemporary Art at SFMOMA; and Anthony Huberman, Director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts
2018 / The International Sculpture Center Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Award
2016 / Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
PUBLICATIONS
2022 / “Amy Nathan: The Gendered Nature of Politics and Power.” Art Plugged, July 11, 2022, https://artplugged.co.uk/amy-nathan-the-gendered-nature-of-politics-and-power/
2020 / “Objects as Handwriting.” Juxtapoz and If You Were Here Now, May 27, 2020, https://www.instagram.com/juxtapozmag/
2019 / Wilson, Emily. “Critics’ Picks: Amy Nathan.” Artforum, November 2019. https://www.artforum.com/picks/amy-nathan-81253
2019 / Art Maze Magazine, Anniversary Edition, Issue 15, 2019, pp. 135 and back cover.
2019 / Frock, Christian L. “Gallery Highlights Curated by Christian L. Frock.” SF/Arts Monthly, October 2019, pp. 16.
2019 / Desmarais, Charles. “7 Bay Area Gallery Shows to See This Fall.” San Francisco Chronicle, 22 August 2019.
2018 / Ellegood, Anne. “Juror’s Pick.” New American Paintings 135, pp. 8, 78-81. MFA Annual juried by Anne Ellegood, Senior Curator, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
2018 / “2018 Outstanding Student Achievement In Contemporary Sculpture Awards.” Sculpture Magazine. October 2018, pp. 52-57.
2018 / Piscitelli, James. “Amy Nathan’s Installation Work.” Embark Arts 2017, edited by Tania Houtzager and Angelica Jardini, Embark Gallery, 2018, pp. 94-95.
SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
2023 / Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Sonoma State University
2022 / Artist Talk, Sculpture Department, Sonoma State University,
2022 / Artist Talk, California College of the Arts
2022 / Rimma Boshernitsan and Amy Nathan in Conversation, CULT Aimee Friberg
2020 / Artist Talk, Berkeley City College
2019 / Artist Talk, Real Time and Space
2019 / Catherine Wagner and Amy Nathan in Conversation, CULT Aimee Friberg
2018 / Artist Talk, Introduction to Abstraction, Stanford University
2018 / Artist Talk, Introduction to Visual Thinking, University of California, Berkeley, Followed by a workshop
to introduce students to Adobe Creative Suite
2017 / Artist Talk, Introduction to Visual Thinking, University of California, Berkeley, Followed by extended mentoring of a group of students from this class on a project
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Teaching
2023 / Painting, Adjunct Faculty at Mills College at Northeastern University
2022 / Figure Drawing, Adjunct Faculty at Mills College at Northeastern University
2018 / Installation, Teaching Assistant to Chris Sollars at Mills College
2017 / Sculpture, Teaching Assistant to Will Rogan at Mills College
Curatorial
2018-2019 / Royal Nonesuch Gallery, Oakland, CA. A co-director of the artist-run alternative art and event space
2017-2018 / Underline Projects, Berkeley, CA. Director and curator of an non-commercial, experimental space for artists