Background
Cutler, Amy was born in 1974 in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States.
Cutler, Amy was born in 1974 in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Cooper Union School of Art, New York, New York, in 1997, and her Master of Fine Arts from The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, Maine, in 1999. The artist has stated that some of her work is inspired by her rejection of traditional gender roles in her 30s, when she chose to buy her own house instead of getting married and having children.
Cutler is an internationally known artist and is represented by the Leslie Tonkonow Gallery in New York City. Since her graduation she has rapidly risen to critical acclaim, and her work has been featured in major surveys of contemporary art, importantly the 2004 Whitney Biennial. The characters in Cutler"s prints and paintings will often be wearing elaborately patterned clothing.
Cutler utilizes culturally-inspired patterns from women"s clothing from around the world.
She draws inspiration from sources as varied as United States. military survival manuals, nature books, fairy tales, Japanese woodblock prints, Persian miniatures, ad Indonesian designs. She admits that she isn’t necessarily “true to the source” as she picks and chooses elements from the source material, while also expanding on lieutenant
Ceremonial textiles based on Indian and Chinese designs are worn by some of the characters Cutler has created. She has said of her art involving motherhood that “You ignore the woman..the woman is the life support".
Cutler"s drawings, paintings, and prints often focus on groups of women, dressed in Victorian style clothing, doing familiar "women"s work".
Using this, she creates strange narratives that play off of known fairy tales and archetypes. Her women characters are frequently paired in scenes with household items, wild animals and hybrid creatures. Despite her figures" childlike appearances they exhibit darker themes such as poverty, social injustice and violence.
Cutler has held several solo exhibitions including museum shows at the Art, Design & Architecture Museum, California (2012), the Huntington Museum of Art, West Virginia (2012), the Weatherspoon Art Museum, North Carolina (2010), the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine (2008), the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid (2007), the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana (2006), Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (2002).
Freiman, Lisa (2006). Amy Cutler: Paintings and Drawings.
Hatje Cantz. Cutler, Amy (2011).
Turtle Furlongs Hatje Cantz.